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Rev. J. B. Jeter, D, D. 



HELIOTYFE PRINTING CO., BOSTON. 



BAPTIST 



DOCTRINES: 



BEING AN EXPOSITION, IN A SERIES OF ESSAYS BY REP RE- 

SENTATIVE BAPTIST MINISTERS, OF THE 

DISTINCTIVE POINTS OF 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE, 









EDITED BY 

REV. CHARLES A. JEXKESTS, 

OF NORTH CAROLINA. 



(taW I t 



ST. LOUIS: 
CHANCY R. BARNS. 

1880. 



It 



'A 



COPTEIGHT 1880. 
CHANCY R. BARNS. 



■^ 



3 



PREFACE. 



In no spirit of controversy is this volume sent 
forth. Its aim is not to kindle strife, but to im- 
part truth. Every religious denomination, per- 
haps, that wields a very extensive influence 
among men, has a formulated creed. The Mo- 
hammedans have their Koran; the Catholics, 
their long-established ritual ; the Episcopalians, 
their Book of Common Prayer ; the Methodists, 
their Discipline ; the Presbyterians, their Con- 
fession of Faith; and the Baptists, the Gos- 
pel of their Lord. While Baptists have no 
rule of faith other than the Scriptures, and while 
they point every inquirer after divine truth to 
the Word of G-od as the ground of his belief, it 
has, nevertheless, been deemed expedient to give 
prominence to those great truths which sepa- 
rate them, more or less widely, from the rest 
of mankind. 

To further this end, an endeavor has been made 
to secure talent and learning second to none in 
the denomination. How far the effort has met 
with success, let others judge. 



IV. PREFACE. 

As to the desirability of such a work, there 
can be but one opinion among those who love the 
coming of their Lord, and believe the Gospel of 
Christ to be the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth. The tendency to ignore 
doctrinal teaching is too sadly prevalent; and 
hence, the rich instruction contained in the doc- 
trines is lost to many. It is hoped, however, that 
thousands of Baptists, by reading these pages, 
may be brought to rejoice in the faith once de- 
livered to the saints, and to realize fully that 
their creed is from heaven. 

All the articles, with the exception of two, have 
been obtained from the authors expressly for this 
Work. Spurgeon's Sermon on Baptismal Regen- 
eration and Fuller's discourse on Predestination 
are taken by permission from their published 
Sermons. 

If, under the direction and blessing of the Great 
Head of the Church, this book shall prove the 
humble means of establishing those whose faith 
is Scriptural, and of bringing many who are in 
error to a knowledge of the truth as it is in 
Jesus, the editor will not regret the anxiety 
it has caused him. 

C. A. JENKENS. 

Fbanklinton, N. C, Jan. 1880. 



CONTENTS 



INTRODUCTION; 9 

By Rev. C. A Jenkens, Franklinton, N. C. 

I. 
BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE; .... 26 
By Rev. Thomas Armitage, D.D., New York City. 

H. 

THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES; . . 49 

By Rev. J. B. Jeter, D.D., Bichmond, Virginia, 

IH. 

INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL; ... 70 

By Rev. Wm. Cathcart, D.D., Philadelphia, Pa. 

IV. 
WHY THE BAPTISTS DO NOT BAPTIZE THEIR 

INFANTS; 109 

By Rev. \V. E. Hatcher, D.D., Bichmond, Va. 

V. 

BAPTISMAL REGENERATION; 114 

By Rev. C H. Spurgeon, London, England. 

VI. 
IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO CHRISTIAN BAP- 
TISM; 151 

By Rev. H. S. Burrage, Portland, Maine. 



VI. CONTENTS. 

VII. 

CLOSE COMMUNION; 170 

By Kev. R. M Dudley, D.D., Georgetown, Ky. 

VIII. 
BAPTIST CHUECHES APOSTOLICAL; . . .198 
By Prof. Albert H. Newman, D.D. Bochester, N. Y. 

IX. 

THE GOSPEL MINISTRY; 245 

By Rev. J. M. Stifler, D.D., New Haven, Ct. 

X. 

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A BAPTIST CHURCH 

AND ALL OTHER CHURCHES; .... 264 
By Rev. T. H. Pritchard, D.D., Wake Forest, N. C. 

XI. 

THE MULTIPLICITY OF DENOMINATIONS AN 

EVIL; 283 

By Rev. J. B. Gambrell, D.D., Clinton, Miss. 

xn. 

MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY; . . 301 
By Rev. J. B. Hartwell,D.D., San Francisco, Cal. 

XIH. 

BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS; 322 

By Rev. A. H. Burlingham, T>.T>.,New York City. 

XIV. 

SPECIAL PROVIDENCE; 345 

By Rev. Wayland Hoyt, D.D., Brooklyn, N. Y. 

XV. 

THE TRINITY; . . .361 

By Rev. Alvah Hovey, D.D., Newton Centre, Mass. 



CONTENTS. VII. 

XVI. 

THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST; 385 

By Rev. W. T. Brantly, D.D., Baltimore, Md. 

XVH. 

THE ATONEMENT; 405 

By Rev. G. W. Samson, D.D., New York City. 

XVIII. 
THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT; . , 443 
By Rev. A. J. Gordon, D.D., Boston, Mass. 

XIX. 

REGENERATION ESSENTLvL TO SALVATION; . 457 
By Rev. E. G. Taylor. D.D., Providence, B. I. 

XX. 

PREDESTINATION; 479 

By Rev. Richard Fuller, D.D., late of Baltimore, 
Maryland. 

XXI. 

FINAL PERSEVERANCE; 515 

By Rev. T. T. Eaton, D.D., Petersburg, Virginia. 

XXII. 

FUTURE PUNISHMENT; 533 

By Rev. J. L. Burrows, D.D., Louisville, Ky. 

xxm. 

THE RESURRECTION; 548 

By Prof. Norman Fox, New York City, 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Facing Page. 

1. PORTRAIT OF EEV. J. B. JETER, D.D., late 

Editor of the " Religious Herald,'''' Richmond, Va. 1 

2. SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, Philadelphia, Pa., 

Rev. Wm. Cathcart, D.D., Pastor. . . 70 

3. COLBY UNIVERSITY, Waterville, Me., Founded 

1820, Rev. Henry E. Robins, D.D., President. 151 

4. ONE OF OUR PRIMITIVE CHUCH HOMES; The 

first Baptist Church ever erected in Missouri. 173 

5. TREVOR HALL, ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL 

SEMINARY, Rochester, N. Y., Founded 1851, 
Rev. A. H. Strong, D.D., President. . . 225 

6. SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, St. Louis, Mo., 

Rev. W. W. Boyd, D.D., Pastor. . . 337 

7. NEWTON THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, New- 

ton Centre, Mass., Rev. Alvah Hovet, D.D., 
President 361 

8. FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, Baltimore, Md„ Rev. 
J. W. M. Williams, D.D., Pastor for thirty 
years. . . 385 

9. DENISON UNIVERSITY, Granville, Ohio, Founded 

1831, Rev. Alfred Owen, D.D., President. 417 

10. CROZER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, Upland, 

Penn., Founded 1868, Rev. H. D. Weston, D.D., 
President . 481 

11. WILLIAM JEWELL COLLEGE, Liberty, Missouri, 

Founded 1849, Rev. W. R. Rothwell, D.D., 
President 529 



INTRODUCTION. 



BY REV. C. A. JENKENS, FRANKLINTON, N. C. 



44 Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." 
— Ex. xiv. 15. 

Possibly an overtasked and broken-hearted people 
had well-nigh forgotten the gracious promise God 
had made long years before to Abraham, their 
father, saying: " I will make thee exceeding fruitful, 
and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall 
come out of thee. And I will establish my covenant 
between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their 
generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God 
unto thee and to thy seed after thee. And I will 
give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land 
wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, 
for an everlasting possession ; and I will be their 
God." As their backs smarted under the task- 
master's lash, or as they gathered straw in Egyptian 
fields, like Sarah, they may have laughed at the 
promise of Jehovah, and esteemed it but an idle tale 
that they were ever to be an independent people, 
the peculiar favorites of heaven, dwelling in a land 
every way fitted to be a type of Paradise. But God 



10 BAPTIST DOCTKINES. 

is not slack concerning his promise, as some men 
count slackness ; and to-day, fleeing in wild confu- 
sion, six hundred thousand effective men, besides 
old men, women, and children, have gathered on 
the border of the Eed Sea. The vast moving 
throng numbers hardly less than two million souls, 
and this day is the Lord's word gloriously fulfilled, 
" That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiply- 
ing I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the 
heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea 
shore." 

Meanwhile the Egyptians are not idle. Pharaoh 
and his servants, recovering somewhat from the 
shock of plagues, and determining still further to 
defy the living God, go forth in hot pursuit of their 
former slaves. Their serried ranks march on, 
" terrible as an army with banners," until the grating 
of their chariot wheels on distant rocks and the 
thundering tramp of their chargers arouse the 
Israelites from their dreams of deliverance and 
peace. 

Destruction seemed inevitable to the chosen seed. 
Trembling age looks back upon the neighboring hills 
crowned with foes, terrified children cling to no less 
terrified mothers in Israel, and even the stoutest 
hearts are dismayed at the approaching peril. The 
people murmur against Moses and against God. 
Escape seemed impossible. On one hand rose a 
treacherous mountain; on the other stretched a 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

desert waste ; behind them marched an infuriated 
host, headed by its king ; while before them rolled 
the angry waves of an unbroken sea. To show, 
perhaps, the strength of his own arm and the glory 
of his own name, Jehovah commands Moses to 
" speak to the children of Israel that they go for- 
ward." Go forward? How can it be — difficulties on 
every side ! Half doubting, they obey the strange 
command, and march to the water's brink, when, lo, 
the prophet of the Lord lifts his rod over the sea, 
and the waters rise on either side a perfect wall, 
through which a redeemed and happy people pass. 

Holding up the children of Israel as a type of 
that Church the Son of God came to establish, I 
wish to impress upon the reader the following les- 
sons : 

I. Absolute obedience to God, the supreme necessity of 
the Church. 

Cicero, when asked what is the first thing in 
oratory, replied, " Action." When asked what is 
the second, he again said, " Action ; n and when asked 
what is the third thing, he still said, " Action." To 
pilgrims in a land of sin and death, it matters not so 
much what are the essential elements of an evanes- 
cent art, but we do know that the first and last thing 
in the divine life of the soul and in the prosperity of 
the Church, is obedience. The whole duty of the 
Church, as well as of man, is to " fear God and keep 



12 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

his commandments." Were it possible for a heaven- 
redeemed soul to cease to obey, it would also cease 
to live ; and if a church cease to obey, it also ceases 
to exist as a divine institution. Had the children of 
Israel positively refused to go forward in obedience 
to the divine command, or had they presumptuously 
attempted to scale the mountain range on their 
right, or flee through the desert on their left, or to 
repel the threatening hosts of Pharaoh at their back, 
they must have forfeited their freedom and happiness, 
and suffered defeat and shame. 

Is it strange, then, that there should be found 
throughout the history of the Church a people ready 
to walk in the statutes of the Lord, and willing to 
suffer persecution and death rather than depart from 
his law? Baptists are not unfrequently reminded 
that they lay too great stress on literal obedience 
in ecclesiastical matters; but, knowing the fearful 
consequences of disobedience recorded in the 
Scriptures for the admonition of men, they do not 
see how they can act otherwise, even if they desired 
to do so. Below will be given a few of the many 
reasons why Baptists cling so tenaciously to the 
Word of God in all points of a doctrinal character. 

1. Obedience is made by Jesus a test of love. In 
that chapter of marvellous sweetness and heavenly 
tenderness in John's Gospel, our Lord says, " If ye 
love me, keep my commandments." In another 
place he makes compliance with his law a test of 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

friendship, saying, "Ye are my, friends, if ye do 
whatsoever I command you." Again, a priceless 
promise, a promise sacred and glorious to every 
believer, is connected with the observance of his 
word : " If ye keep my commandments, ye shall 
abide in my love." Believing, then, that submission 
to the will of our Lord is one of the loveliest graces 
of the renewed heart, we feel that we cannot depart 
from his commands without proving false to ourselves 
and false to him. 

2. On the other hand, disobedience is everywhere 
held up in the inspired volume as one of the blackest 
vices of the human heart — a vice on which rest 
alike the unmingled displeasure and withering curse 
of Almighty God. In order to impress upon the 
hearts of men the " exceeding sinfulness " of diso- 
bedience, the apostle Jude penetrates another 
world to adduce a fitting illustration. He says, 
" The angels which kept not their first estate, but 
left their own habitation, he hath reserved in ever- 
lasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of 
the great day." Can language be more strong, or 
doom more terrible ? 

Another sad, but striking instance, may be found 
in the history of our first parents. Theirs was a 
a happy lot — God their companion, Eden their home. 
For them, birds sang, streams murmured, fruits 
ripened, and flowers bloomed. But, at some evil 
hour, Satan suggested a rebellious act that resulted 



14 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

in the loss of all. As they pluck the fruit, it turns 
to ashes on their lips ; and as they gaze upon the 
flowers, they fade — fit symbols of their blasted 
hopes, The fatal effects of this one treacherous act 
are seen and felt wherever man lives. Sin has 
poisoned the entire race; for in Adam all die. 
Eden! mystic name — at whose mention start into 
being a hundred thoughts — where to-day is Eden 1 
The traveller may surmise, men may guess, but no 
man knows. Its general locality may be ascertained, 
but it is impossible to say with certainty, of any spot 
on earth, " This is the Garden of the Lord." Thus 
has Jehovah blotted out the earthly Paradise as a 
forceful expression of his wrath against man's first 
disobedience. 

Fruitful instruction may further be gathered from 
the case of Moses. This was a man upon whom 
rested the dews of heaven, and to whom were 
granted many and peculiar privileges. He was at 
once the favorite of the Father and the type of the 
Son. On one occasion, however, Moses was betrayed 
into an act of disobedience. The thirsty congrega- 
tion of Israel gathered about him, clamoring for 
water, and the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, " Take 
the rod and gather thou the assembly together, thou 
and Aaron thy brother, and speak ye unto the rock 
before their eyes, and it shall give forth his water." 
But Moses regarded not the injunction of his Maker, 
and " lifted up his hand, and with his rod he smote 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

the rock twice." For this unfaithfulness, the great 
law-giver was not permitted to enter the promised 
land. The difference between speaking to the rock, 
and smiting it, may have appeared small in the eyes 
of the servant of the Lord, but in the eyes of the 
Lord himself, it was very great. 

I shall notice next the rash act of Uzzah. The law 
touching the sanctuary and its vessels is recorded 
Kuin. iv. 15, as follows : " And when Aaron and his 
sons have made an end of covering the sanctuary, 
and all the vessels of the sanctuary, as the camp is 
to set forward ; after that, the sons of Kohath shall 
come to bear it : but they shall not touch any holy 
thing, lest they die." When the Israelites were 
bringing up the ark from Kirjath-jearim, "Uzzah 
and Ahio drove the cart." When they came to the 
threshing-floor of Chidon, Uzzah put forth his hand 
to support the tottering ark, ." for the oxen stum- 
bled," thinking, perhaps, he was rendering timely 
and acceptable service, but at the same time forget- 
ting the commandment of the Lord, that they shall 
not touch any holy thing, lest they die." So God's 
anger was kindled against Uzzah, and he smote 
him. 

A notable instance of God's abhorrence of disre- 
gard to his word, is presented in the life of Saul. 
The king of Israel was commanded to go and smite 
Amalek, and utterly destroy all they had, and to 
spare them not ; but " to slay both man and woman, 



16 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass." 
Saul smote the Amalekites, but, contrary to the 
divine command, preserved Agag and the best of 
the spoil, "sheep, oxen, and the chief of the things." 
The king declares to Samuel that his purpose was to 
sacrifice to the Lord; but the prophet replies, 
" Hath the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings 
and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord % 
Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to 
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as 
the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity 
and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word 
of the Lord, he hath also rejected thee from being 
king." 

The last instance to be adduced in this connection 
is the history of Judas Iscariot. Singularly was 
this apostle favored. He shared the instructions 
of the other apostles. He witnessed the miracles 
of his Lord. Jesus makes known to him, as to the 
rest, the unmistakable requirements of his law. In 
the full blaze of divine truth, Judas determines to 
betray the Bedeemer, and, violating the spirit of 
every command God has given, sells for thirty pieces 
of silver his Saviour and his soul. 

Bemember, then, that by disobedience angels lost 
heaven ; man, Eden ; Moses, the promised land ; 
Uzzah, his life; Saul, his crown; and Judas, his 
soul. 

3. Baptists are unwilling for their practices to 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

vary from the Scriptures, not only because fidelity 
to Christ demands it, but because they fear the 
expansive power of error. Error is a subtle thing; 
once begun, it is beyond the science of numbers to 
compute its end. It is like artillery that shakes the 
solid earth, and fills the heavens with its thunders, 
until neighboring hills and peaks and distant valleys 
are vocal with its echoes. Let me illustrate more 
fully. Once suffer human authority to be the gov- 
erning power in the Church, and that body will 
ultimately have, as a vicar of Christ, a priest, a 
bishop, or a pope. Having a human head, it will also 
have a human body. The moment man began to 
control it, it ceased to be a Gospel Church. Admit 
infant baptism, and the result will be the unchaste 
union of Church and State, an unregenerate mem- 
bership, or, at all events, a disregard of the Scriptural 
mode of baptism. Thus u a little leaven leaveneth 
the whole lump." 

4. Baptists hold that Jesus Christ is the founder 
of the true Church, and that he alone has the right 
to give it its ordinances and its laws. To undertake 
to make an improvement upon what he has done, is 
to impeach his wisdom and impugn his goodness. It 
is to say he knew not how to establish a church best 
calculated to promote the interests of men and the 
glory of his name. If, however, it be admitted that 
he had sufficient wisdom to found such a church, 
and did it not, the blasphemous conclusion must be 

2 



18 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

reached, that the neglect is due to a want of good- 
ness and love on his part. 

Again, they are assured their churches are well 
founded. Jesus says, " Upon this rock I will build 
my church ; and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
against it." Glorious truth, and precious promise ! 
I build my church ! Not Abraham, not Peter, not 
Henry VIII., not John Wesley, not Alexander 
Campbell, but Jesus Christ the Son of God. The 
true Church, then, cannot be traced to human 
origin. 

5. The last reason I shall assign for Baptists 
refusing to depart from the New Testament church 
model is, that they have examined the creeds of 
other denominations, and have failed to discover 
anything camparable to their own faith. With pain, 
they have observed the tendency of ecclesiastical 
organizations, not modelled after the Scriptures, to 
lose their spiritual power, and to be absorbed in the 
world. What, for instance, is the spiritual force of 
the Jews? What are they accomplishing for the 
glory of God, for the conversion of their own race, 
or for that of the world ? What has been the spiritual 
tendency of the Eomish Church? Let the blood of 
God's martyred saints cry out. Let the enslaved 
nations speak. Give a tongue to ignorance, crime, 
and war, and they will testify that the Eoman Cath- 
olic Church has been the fruitful mother of vice and 
error, opposing in every way possible the cause of 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

truth aud heaven. The other pedobaptist churches 
differ, more or less widely, from the Eomish Hier- 
archy, but as a matter of history, they can be traced 
as branches of that prolific vine. Romish errors 
still find a home in their creeds. They have inaugu- 
rated many reforms, and done many good works ; 
but they have failed to erect a Scriptural church, or 
give to the world a pure gospel. The Protestant 
churches have not been able to contend successfully 
with the mother church. As Dr. Curry observes, 
"Baptist principles are necessary in their totality 
for the final overthrow of Romanisin." Again, 
" many candid Romanists admit that Baptists are the 
only thorough antagonists of their creed." The 
same author quotes Dr. Buckland as saying, " It was 
truly said, in that day, that whenever the reformers 
would find arguments to conquer Rome, they used 
those of the Anabaptists ; and when they contended 
with Anabaptists, they were compelled to use the 
arguments of Rome, — the authority of the church, 
and the established customs and traditions of the 
past. They could not appeal successfully to the 
Bible. This inconsistency was again and again 
urged upon them by Romanists, and it was declared 
that there is not, cannot be, any middle ground 
between the Baptist faith and the faith of Rome." 

^Yhile other denominations are rising and falling, 
and while their history has, for the most part, been 
a history of blunders and changes, the Baptists have 



20 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

held on to the even tenor of their way, glorifying 
God, and blessing the world. Though their churches 
are entirely separate and independent, they never- 
theless harmonize in doctrine, because the Scriptures 
constitute the bond of union. They are perfectly 
satisfied with their creed, believing it to be of 
heavenly origin, and best suited to the wants of 
men and the will of God. 

Through persecution and ridicule they have come, 
humbly walking in their Master's footsteps and 
hearkening to their Master's voice. Others may 
seek strange paths and delight in strange creeds, 
but they will obey Jehovah's voice, and "go for- 
ward." 

II. The second lesson we find in the narrative 
from which the text is taken, is that there are no non- 
essentials in the divine commands. Moses was not 
only required to order the children of Israel to 
advance, but first to lift up his rod, and stretch out his 
hand over the sea, and divide it. This was not a 
mere form or an unmeaning ceremony. It was a 
high and heavenly mandate, invested with the 
glorious dignity of divine authority. Many who are 
accustomed to select those truths that are congenial 
to their creed, and to despise the others, may dis- 
cover but slight connection between lifting a rod 
and dividing a sea. It is well to remember, however, 
that the angry waters parted not, nor was deliverance 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

effected for an imperilled host until this minor com- 
mand was obeyed. Dr. Tucker forcibly remarks: 
"Is it conceivable that the great God could possibly 
lend the sanction of his authority to that which is 
nothing but emptiness ? or that he would command 
us to do that which might well be left undone u ? Does 
disobedience of any part of his law make no change 
in our relations to him ? A mere form is an insignifi- 
cant thing and unworthy of respect. Has God 
commanded anything that is insignificant or un- 
worthy of respect? Is any part of his law contempti- 
ble ? The soul takes fright at the very thought. God's 
commandment is exceeding broad ; each part of it 
is jealous of the honor of every other, and each is 
invested with the majesty of all." 

Is there any part of God's Word that sanctions 
disregard for even the smallest of his requirements ? 
On the contrary, are there not abundant passages 
that teach his displeasure at such disregard ? When 
Lot was instructed to leave the doomed city of 
Sodom, the angel's warning was : " Escape for thy 
life ; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all 
the plain ; escape to the mountain, lest thou be 
consumed." As they were hastening across the 
plain, it may have appeared to Lot's wife a trivial 
matter to look back toward the fated city, the scene 
of past associations, and the home of her children. 
Not hearkening to the angel's voice, she hesitates, 
turns, and looks ; and " she became a pillar of salt." 



22 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Only a look! yes, a look, but a disobedient look. 
As it is true that there is life in a look, so it is true 
that there is death in a look. " Bemeinber Lot's 
wife." Samson may not have conceived any essential 
relation between his long hair and his great strength ; 
yet when he lost the one he also lost the other. 
What essential link is there between rams' horns and 
the destruction of a city ? Yet the walls of Jericho 
stood firm until the horns were sounded. 

And again : u Moses was admonished of God, 
when he was about to make the tabernacle : For, 
see. saith he, that thou make all things according to 
the pattern showed to thee in the mount." Heb. 
viii., 5. How minute the details — yet how important ! 
each one an essential part of the divine pattern. As 
the tabernacle of the Father was constructed after 
a pattern, so was the church of the Son. His 
pattern was his own commandments: "teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you." Matt, xxviii., 20. Who will be bold 
enough to assert that the last instructions of our 
Lord to his church embodied non-essentials'? Bather 
let every believer say with Dr. Gill : " Whatever is 
done in a way of religious worship should be 
according to divine rule; a church of Christ ought 
to be formed according to the primitive pattern, and 
should consist, not of all that are born in a nation, 
province, or parish ; nor should all that are born of 
believing parents be admitted into it ; no unholy, 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

unbelieving and unconverted persons, only such as 
are true believers in Christ, and who are baptized 
according as the word of God directs." 

Jesus has set his people an illustrious example. 
How careful he was of the minor points of the law. 
He kept the ichole law, and deemed no prophecy of 
so small importance as not to attend, even amid the 
pangs of the cross, to its fulfilment. " Christ also 
suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should 
follow his steps." I. Peter ii. 21. 

To teach that there are non-essentials in the Gos- 
pel, is not only insulting to Jesus but dangerous to 
men. Who is to decide what is, and what is not 
essential ? The whole matter is left necessarily to the 
wild caprice of misguided men. Men differ as to the 
importance of the various doctrines of the Scrip- 
tures; they must have, then, different churches as 
the expression of their faith. Creeds of every 
description are framed, confusion arises, and Christ- 
ianity is dishonored. Who is to say that it makes 
any difference whether Christ or the Pope is head 
of the church ? Who shall condemn Episcopalians 
for encouraging the unhallowed union of Church and 
State ? Who shall decide between Unitarians and 
Trinitarians, between Methodists and Mormons, be- 
tween Presbyterians and Campbellites J ? In other 
words, who is to judge between truth and error ? 
Pedobaptists answer, "I." Baptists answer, "Jesus." 
There is no middle ground. We must receive the 



24 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

truth, and the whole truth, as found in the inspired 
volume. To do otherwise, is to plunge into mists 
and endless error. 

III. God makes a way for Ms people. 

This is the concluding lesson. Hedged in on 
every side, humanly speaking, escape was impossible 
in the case of the children of Israel. But with God 
all things are possible. He looks down upon the 
bewildered people of his peculiar and unchanging 
love, and through the depths of the sea he makes 
a way for them to pass dry-shod. Strange way — but 
safe and glorious ! and right joyfully did Moses and 
the people sing a sweet song unto the Lord, saying : 
"And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were 
gathered, the floods stood upright as a heap, and 
the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. 
The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will 
divide the spoil ; my lust shall be satisfied upon 
them ; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy 
them. Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea 
covered them; they sank as lead in the mighty 
waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the 
gods % Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful 
in praises, doing wonders 1 n 

In ways quite as wonderful has Jehovah led those 
who have delighted to obey him. Enoch walked 
with God; and by a path never trod before, entered 
the gates of glory. When the stern prophet had 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

ended his mission on earth, the Master honored him 
with a chariot of fire and flaming horses ; and " Elijah 
went up by a whirlwind into heaven." When sorrow 
had filled Jacob's heart, and he cried in bitterness, 
"Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take 
Benjamin away; all these things are against me," 
still, all things were working together for his highest 
good, and a lovely providence was preparing a way 
for him to enter a land of peace and plenty. The 
world was corrupt and full of violence, and God 
determined to destroy our wicked race. One man, 
however, a preacher of righteousness, has found 
favor in his sight. On Noah and his family rests the 
divine love. When a guilty race is overwhelmed in 
ruin, and the footprints of men have been blotted 
out from the earth, Noah rides on the universal 
wave, until the storms are hushed, the wrath of 
heaven appeased, and the rainbow of promise beams 
from the peaceful clouds. 

No less remarkably has God preserved his Church. 
From its inception until now, it has not lacked 
enemies. Foes within and foes without have sought 
either to change or to destroy it. Early men began 
to transgress the commandments of God by their 
traditions, and to make his word of none effect. 
Slight errors, and then grosser errors, crept into the 
early churches. Slight deviations from apostolic 
practices resulted, at length, in bold subversion of 
the divine arrangement. Thus arose the u man of 



26 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sin," the Church of Eome. The true churches were 
persecuted and despised. Ecclesiastical authority 
was blended with temporal power, and the civil arm 
was raised to crush the gospel of God's beloved 
Son. Dark ages brooded over the nations, and over 
the apostolic churches. It almost seemed that God 
had forgotten to be gracious, and Jesus to remember 
his promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." Liberty was crushed, and 
there was scarcely a light to shine amid the unmin- 
gled gloom. The Lord Jesus had, however, faithful 
witnesses and a peculiar people dwelling in mountain 
caverns. The gospel light had burned low, but had 
not been extinguished. Forces, divinely ordered, 
were at work, which resulted eventually in the 
Eeformation. While apostate churches were seek- 
ing alliance with the State, and reposing in the un- 
chaste embrace of princes, the true church of Jesus 
never bowed to temporal power, nor laid her virgin 
head on the pillows of royalty. She repelled alike 
the threats of priests and the flattery of kings. As 
the heavenly influences of these churches began to 
spread, a few great minds caught the spirit of Chris- 
tianity, and, under divine guidance, inaugurated the 
Eeformation. Thus did God make a way for his 
elect — a way that led through deserts, wildernesses, 
persecution, blood, and death. The reformers had 
too much of the spirit of the Eomish Church re- 
maining in them to be altogether favorable to 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

churches holding Baptist views. The heaven-taught 
doctrine of religious liberty, so fondly cherished by 
these churches, was strenuously opposed by the 
Protestants. Protestants, true to the spirit of the 
mother church, soon began to seek union with the 
State, or else to assume authority not delegated to 
men. The Baptists were again in disfavor, and again 
persecuted and despised. Under Protestant sway, 
there seemed to be no genial soil where a pure 
gospel could nourish. 

A brighter day was soon to dawn. There was a 
land, basking in the rays of the western sun, and 
washed by western seas — a land whose forests as 
yet had never resounded with the glad tidings of 
eternal love and the praises of Almighty God. 
America, long reserved for a noble end, is now dis- 
covered. Here liberty has built its temple, and a 
pure gospel has made its home. Here the shackles 
of superstition fall from the captive's hand, and the 
blood-redeemed soul exults in conscious freedom. 
Here the humblest believer is taught that he is 
superior to priests and popes, and destined, under 
the influences of immaculate love, to rise superior 
to ignorance and sin, and wear a crown brighter 
than " flaming suns or shining constellations." 

The passage of the children of Israel from a land 
of bondage, through the Red Sea, to the land of 
promise, is strikingly suggestive of the passage of a 
pure Christianity from the spiritual bondage of Euro- 



28 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

pean superstition, across the ocean, to a land of 
liberty and peace. We know, at all events, that God 
has made a way for his church, and that that church 
is destined to bless not only America, but the whole 
world. Yes, blessed Jesus, thou hast built thy 
church upon a rock, and the gates of hell have not 
prevailed against it ! 

The Baptists of America have done a noble work, 
and their influence is even now felt throughout this 
land. In numbers they have multiplied from thous- 
ands into hundreds of thousands, and from hundreds 
of thousands into millions. But their power is not 
to be estimated by numbers ; they have taught free- 
dom of soul to this nation, and furnished a model 
for its great government. Their influence extends 
far beyond their own ranks. It is exerted unmis- 
takably in other denominations. How many more 
persons are immersed in other communions than 
formerly. In many communities, where once the 
custom prevailed, how seldom are infants baptized. 
Other changes might be noticed that are traceable 
to the same religious power; but it is unnecessary 
to relate them now. 

Then, " go forward," Church of the living God ; 
"ye are the light of the world." The Saviour's 
words find a forceful illustration in an incident 
related by a distinguished traveller, and quoted by 
the late Dr. Bichard Fuller. "Being at Calais," 
remarks the writer, " I climbed up into the light- 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

house and conversed with the keeper. ' Suppose,' 
said I, ' that one of those lights should go out.' ' Go 
out I impossible!' he exclaimed, with a sort of con- 
sternation at the bare hypothesis. c Sir,' he added, 
pointing to the ocean, 'Yonder, where nothing can 
be seen, there are ships going by to every part of the 
world. If to-night one of my burners were to go 
out, within six months would come a letter, perhaps 
from India, perhaps from America, perhaps from 
some place I never heard of, saying, on such and 
such a night, at such and such an hour, the light 
at Calais burned dim, the watchman neglected his 
post, and vessels were in danger. Ah, sir, some- 
times, in the dark nights, in stormy weather, I look 
out to sea, and feel as if the eye of the whole world 
were looking at my lights. Let them go out? burn 
dim ? O never, never, never!'" 

Go forward to greater attainments in grace and to 
nobler works of love ! Eemember that one is your 
Master, even Christ. Eemember that it is his to 
bind the earth with fetters of ice, or wreathe it with 
the flowers of spring— his " to kindle the fires of 
suns or quench the light of stars " — his to frame a 
world or found a church — his to command, ours to 
obey! 



BAPTIST FAITH A^D PEACTICE. 

BY REV. THOMAS AKMITAGE, D. D., N. Y. 



"We desire to hear from thee what thou thinkest, for as 
concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken 
against." Acts xxviii. 22. 

Paul had been brought to Borne, a prisoner in 
chains; he was poor and friendless, and charged 
with being a ring-leader in " the sect of the Nazar- 
enes." His enemies had inveterate prejudices against 
him, because he was an abettor of the claims of 
Jesus. Still, knowing also his great intellectual 
power, his refinement of manner, purity of motive, 
and spotlessness of character, they professed a will- 
ingness to hear him plead the cause of Christ before 
they condemned it, or judged him. This seemed 
manly. There is an air of equity, fairness and can- 
dor about their words, " we desire to hear from 
thee," which commends the men who uttered them. 
And this was all that the Apostle asked. Give him 
an impartial hearing, in order to a right judgment 
in the matter, and then, if they rejected both him 
and his religion, he could do no more. A man of 
one religion pays a poor compliment to a man of 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE 31 

another, and a poorer to his own, when he cannot, 
or dare not, investigate the religion of his fellow 
man; but to refuse him a frank hearing, betrays 
conscious weakness. 

The Christians held tenets and practices in wide 
distinction from both Jews and pagans, but what 
difference did that make to either of them ? These 
" Nazarenes " injured no man, friend or foe, in his 
property, character or person. They were gentle in 
spirit, and harmless in life. They were not " forni- 
cators, or covetous, or railers, or drunkards, or 
extortioners." They were poor but not morose, and 
instead of being dangerous, or even burdensome 
to the community, they went about doing good, and 
at the same time, " ministered to their own necessi- 
ties n by hard labor. Why, then, were they " every- 
where spoken against?" Could not calumny and 
reproach let them alone? Why should hate be 
stirred to its depths, because truth and its supre- 
macy sanctified the heart and life of its disciples ? 
Certainly, there was no cause here for the hiss of 
proscription, and men reproached them, either in 
ignorance of their principles, or despite their better 
knowledge. In either case they were inexcusable. 
If they were ignorant, they could have had light by 
asking for it, and if they knew better, then they did 
violence to their own manhood. The fact is, that 
they were not so ignorant as they seemed to be, but 
the evidences of Christianity had silenced their 



32 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

reasoning, and overwhelmed them in shame ; so 
that, in malice they came to berate that to which 
they could not reply. This trick was considerably 
older than themselves, and has long outlived them. 
Since the days of Paul, Christians are divided into 
sects quite as much as the Jews were in his day. 
These in some principles and practices, are wide 
apart. The lamentable consequence is, that aliena- 
tions have sprung up, which subject, sometimes one 
sect and sometimes another, sometimes one doctrine 
and sometimes another, to denunciation. Then fol- 
lows the unlovely and unlicensed charge of " bigot" 
and " fanatic,' 7 " heretic " and " schismatic." All this 
is followed in turn by the unmitigated evil of mis- 
representing and distorting each other's views and 
positions; of subjecting each other to unfounded 
reports and misrepresentations of opinion and prac- 
tice, descending sometimes, even to caricature, 
greatly to each other's prejudice, if not to the point 
of direct falsehood. In all charity, this renders it 
pretty evident that one body of Christians is con- 
tent to remain wilfully ignorant of the tenets and 
practices of others, and of their reasons therefor. 
Indeed, it is a very rare thing to find a man of one 
sect, who could, if he honestly tried, write a formula 
of the faith of another sect, which his Christian 
neighbor would be willing to subscribe to, as a cor- 
rect exhibit of his own principles and practices. 
Nor can you wonder at this, when you consider how 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 33 

few there are who can give an intelligent exposition 
of their own principles, and their reasons for cher- 
ishing them. So, then, I am sorry to say, most of 
the Christian denominations speak of each other, 
either in ignorance, or prejudice, in something, or 
somewhere. ]N"ow, is there any sense or manliness, 
not to say true religion, in this state of things % Can 
we not frankly, without ill-natured controversy, 
calmly, without disturbed passion, and freely, without 
restraint, explain to each other what we hold, and 
why? And then, if we fail to see alike, we shall 
mutually respect each other's convictions. Let me 
make an honest attempt to do this, on the Baptist 
side of the house. Of course it will be impossible 
for me to give you all the reasons for what we believe 
and do, in one address ; this would require volumes. 
I must be content, therefore, with telling you what 
we believe and do, without giving the reasons. 

You all know, to begin with, that as a sect we have 
the unenviable distinction of being " everywhere 
spoken against"; for we are not honored in one 
place, and subjected to obloquy in another — the 
detraction is pretty evenly spread. Perhaps it does 
us no injury, as " a prophet has no honor in his own 
country, " but that makes it no easier to bear; rather 
a little harder, because a Baptist prophet has none 
either there or anywhere else. This may be a true 
sign of prophethood; I do not deny that, but I do 
deny that we enjoy proscription because we find 



34 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

that it is refreshing. Even this prejudice makes lis 
the more anxious to be understood by others, as we 
understand ourselves. We hold, then, to these three 
great foundation principles, namely : 

1. That the book called the Bible is given by the 
inspiration of God, and is the only rule of Christian 
faith and practice. The consequence is, that we have 
no creeds, nor catechisms, nor decretals, which bind 
us by their authority. We think a creed worth noth- 
ing, unless it is supported by Scriptural authority, 
and if the creed is founded on the word of God, we 
do not see why we should not rest on that word 
which props up the creed; we prefer to go back 
directly to the foundation itself and rest there alone. 
If it is able to sustain us, we need nothing else, and 
if it is not, then we cannot rest upon a creed to sup- 
port us when that creed has no support for itself. 
Some of our churches have what they call " Declar- 
ations," or " Articles of Faith," which are mere 
statements of what they think that the Bible teaches, 
but they are not put forth by any theological or 
ecclesiastical authority, and therefore do not bind 
the consciences of the churches. Some of our 
churches have no such" Articles" or " Declarations," 
because they find no need for them, and those who 
use them do not all use the same. Our churches 
hold that Jesus Christ is the only Law-giver, and the 
only King in Zion ; that his law is laid down in the 
Scriptures, and is perfect: and, therefore, they refuse 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 35 

to follow all forms of tradition and ecclesiastical 
ordinations whatever, bowing only to the behests of 
inspired precept, and the recorded practices of the 
apostolic churches, as their record is found in the 
Scriptures. 

2. Baptists hold that God has given to every person 
the right to interpret the Scriptures for himself. As 
we cannot be Baptists without the Bible, we must 
know personally for ourselves, what order of obedi- 
ence it requires at our hands. To give up one of 
these positions is to give up both. But do not 
mistake me here, as to what we mean by private 
judgment, as a divine right. We do not think that 
men are at liberty to think of the Bible or not, to 
obey it or not, just as they please. But we think 
that they are bound to use their judgment, and to 
govern it, by the facts and truths of the Bible. The 
liberty that we claim, is not to follow our own fancies, 
or predilections, in investigating the Bible, not 
merely to speculate upon it, and then diverge from 
its teachings if we choose to do so, because that 
would be criminal trifling. The right to investigate 
the truth does not carry with it the right to disobey 
it, or to doubt it, — that would convert the doctrine 
iuto rebellion against its author, which is an evil, and 
cannot become a right. God allows every man to 
interpret the Bible for himself, in order that he may 
discover its facts and truths, and then honestly follow 
them in obedience. Hence, no church, or class of 



36 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

men in the church, can step in between the personal 
investigations of the man and the Bible, to interpet 
it for him by authority. 

3. That a man is responsible to God, and to him 
only, for his faith and practice, so far as the infliction 
of any punishment for disobedience to God is con- 
cerned. Eight here we deny the right of the civil 
magistrate, or the State, either to prescribe a form 
of religion for us, or to punish us for not following 
any religion they may prescribe. This we call soul- 
liberty, a freedom which we have obtained at a great 
price ; the rack, the dungeon, the " bloody tenet," 
the stake and the gibbet. Baptists have ever resisted 
the right of the State to establish the church by law, 
to tolerate the conformists of that church, and put 
its nonconformists under pains and penalties — or to 
interfere with the free exercise of a man's religion, be 
it what it may. We may regret that all men are not 
Christians, and wish that they were, and we may 
wish that they held Christian principles as we hold 
them, but we have no right to enforce our doctrines 
by law, and others have no right to force their 
doctrines upon us by human statute. We hold that 
if a man chooses to be a Mohammedan, a Jew, a Pagan, 
a Eoman Catholic, a Protestant or an Infidel, he has 
a right to be that, so far as the civil law is concerned. 
Therefore, all persecution for the maintenance of 
this or that religion is radically wrong. And where 
Baptists have founded a State, or been the most 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 37 

numerous in a State, there has never been an act of 
persecution inflicted. The State of Rhode Island 
was founded by Baptists 240 years ago, and in that 
State no man has yet been persecuted for his religion 
by the civil power. And the same liberty which we 
claim for ourselves, we are bound to claim for others, 
for if their rights can be taken away, ours may be 
also. When a Baptist shall rob one man of soul-lib- 
erty, by statute, penalty and sword, he will cease to 
be a Baptist for that reason* Baptists have ever 
sealed this great doctrine of soul-liberty with their 
blood. Their bones are bleaching everywhere in the 
Alpine valleys, amongst the eternal snows ; their 
ashes have flitted over the pavements of Smithfield, 
on the winds for centuries. The sighs and sob- 
bings of Baptist sufferers haunt the " coal hole n 
of Lambeth Palace, and the dungeons in Lollard's 
Tower to this day. In the long list of martyrs, 
Arnold of Bresica, the star of Italy, Jerome of 
Prague, the most accomplished man of his day, and 
Hubmeyer of Ratisbon, sealed this doctrine with 
their blood. And then there followed them men in 
humbler walks, the good Hans of Overdam, the 
beautiful young Dosie of Leeuwarden, and Richard 
Woodman, the sturdy yeoman ; all these shed their 
blood as its witnesses. Baptist women also have 
sent up their shrill cry of martyrdom, till the blood 
of humanity has curdled at the heart. One sharp 
shriek after another comes, rending the air of the 



38 BAPTIST DOCTRINESo 

ages, from these brides of Christ, Maria of Monjou, 
Ann Askew, from the nobility of the British realm, 
Elizabeth Gaunt, a mother in Christian charity, and 
Joan Boucher, the heroine of Canterbury. Out of 
their very ashes, which crumbled at the stake, joint 
by joint and limb by limb, God has raised up modern 
Baptists, as from the dead, to re-assert the doctrine 
of soul-liberty. 

You will readily see that out of these three great 
principles, spring up : 

1. The doctrine of church independency. Hence, 
the Baptist denomination is not a church, but a body 
of churches. That is to say, each church or congre- 
gation is entirely independent of each other church 
or congregation, in all that relates to its government. 
Every separate Baptist church chooses its own 
minister and other officers, receives and dismisses its 
own members, makes its own rules and regulations, 
and is sovereign in its self-control throughout. 
Baptists have no legislative, judicial, nor executive 
body, known as a convocation, conference, council 
or synod. A body of churches voluntarily organize 
themselves into an association, but simply for fra- 
ternal and missionary purposes. Associations have 
no power over the churches, each church governing 
itself on democratic principles, and being as free 
from outside interference as so many private families, 
in this or any other city. The next result of these 
principles is : 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 39 

2. A regenerated church in ember ship. No person 
can become a member of a Baptist church, till he 
professes to have found the remission of his sins, by 
faith in the merits of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many 
fall into the mistake that, in some way or other, we 
are sacramentarians ; that is, that we associate the 
moral renovation of the soul with baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. This is a sad mistake. We believe 
that man cannot be " born from above, or made a 
new creature," excepting by the sovereign influence 
of the Holy Spirit on the heart, leading the sinner 
to accept the benefits of Christ's atonement, by faith, 
to the free justification of his soul. Then, when he 
is regenerated, or as the word means, generated 
again, we accept him as a fit subject for baptism. 
In that act, he professes his faith in Christ as his 
present Saviour. So far from baptizing a man, in 
order that his soul may be regenerated thereby, we 
administer it to him because he is already regen- 
erated by the Spirit of God. We say to him, " You 
have no right to baptism till you are * born again,' 
till you have a new heart, and are made a temple of 
the Holy Spirit. All the waters on the globe, and all 
the religious services that may be used in connection 
with water, cannot cleanse your soul of one stain or 
blot which sin has left. But now that you are regen- 
erated from above, it is your duty to be baptized, 
and your privilege to be baptized, and by that act to 
declare that you are already a renewed man. And 



40 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

because you are now 'dead indeed unto sin, and alive 
unto righteousness/ you 'must be buried with Christ 
in baptism :' just as Christ was first buried in the 
waters of the Jordan, and then in the tomb of 
Joseph ; that like as he was raised again by the 
glory of the father, even so should ye walk in 
newness of life." This is the doctrine of baptism as 
Paul preaches it in the sixth chapter of Komans, and 
this is the reason that we immerse men, because when 
men are " buried," they are covered in the tomb. 
This is what we understand by burying a believer 
u with Christ in baptism." You will see therefore, 
that we must 

3. Reject infant baptism. An infant, we think, 
cannot be brought to the Lord's baptism, any more 
properly than it can be brought to the Lord's supper. 
It cannot discern the import of the Lord's baptism, 
any more than it can discern the Lord's body, there- 
fore, it cannot show forth the significancy of one, 
any more than it can the significancy of the other. 
It is a subject for neither ordinance. On this point 
the North British Review exactly expresses our views 
when it says : " Scripture knows nothing of the 
baptism of infants. There is absolutely not a single 
trace of it to be found in the New Testament. The 
recognized baptism of the ancient church was that 
of adults." But we do not rest there, on this sub- 
ject. Professor Lange, of Jena, who is not a 
Baptist, expresses our views more fully, when he 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 41 

says : " Would the Protestant church fulfill and 
attain to its final destiny, the baptism of infants 
must of necessity be abolished. " ^ T ow this 
learned man thinks that infant baptism should be 
abolished, if Protestantism would reach its " final 
destiny." But he does not give us his reasons for 
thinking so. Our own views on the same subject 
are these: — It seems to us that infant baptism is in 
conflict with the great doctrine of the atonement of 
Christ. We believe that if an infant dies, it is saved 
by the virtue of Christ's blood-shedding, and not by 
a few drops of water, nor an ocean full. It looks to 
us, therefore, to be laying a great stress on water in 
salvation^ to be christening the child in death, as 
well as to foster superstition ; as if the death of 
Jesus were not enough to save it, whereas in heaven, 
the ransomed babe will sing glory, and ascribe sal- 
vation " unto him who has washed us in his blood," 
and not to him who christened us. Then we think 
that infant baptism is a great evil and should be 
" abolished," because, if the christened child lives, 
his christening has introduced him into the visible 
church, and thereby corrupted the gospel simplicity 
of the church relation. The whole of the State 
churches of Europe are made up of persons who 
were christened as infants. So wonder that they 
are corrupt churches. When infant baptism makes 
all the population members of the church, that act 
blots out all lines of distinction between a converted 



42 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

church, and an unconverted world. But in those 
churches which are not established by law, but who 
still think that "the church is composed of believers 
and their baptized children," infant baptism corrupts 
the church relation. They do not pretend that the 
christening so renewed the child's moral nature as 
to make him a saint. But they do claim that it 
introduced him into the church. Yet, he is not 
under church obligations and discipline, and he does 
not share church privileges, such as the Lord's sup- 
per. So that infant baptism, as we see it, corrupts 
the church by introducing another sort of members 
into its fellowship, beside those who are converted 
to Christ. Then we hold that the christening of a 
child inflicts a serious injury upon him. It leaves 
the impression upon him, as he grows up, that in 
some way, he cannot tell how, he is sealed in a cov- 
enant to Christ, as other children are not ; whereas, 
he finds himself just as wicked as other children. 
And then, if he ever wishes to make a profession of 
religion himself, it robs him of the right to that 
religious freedom, by which he can follow his own 
convictions of personal duty in baptism, without 
violating the covenant which his parents made for 
him, by repudiating their act of infant baptism. 
These principles lead us to put forth the ordinances, 
baptism and the Lord's supper — 

4. Just where the Lord Jesus left them. There is 
no point on which we are more grievously misrepre- 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 43 

sented, and on which we are more severely spoken 
against, than that of the supper. Scarcely any 
form of denunciation against us, on this subject, 
seems to be thought too severe, even by otherwise 
lovely Christian people. And we are sure that 
these same persons would treat us very differently 
if we could get them to listen long enough to our 
views to understand us. At any rate, they would 
respect both our integrity and self-consistency in 
the matter, whether they adopted our views or not. 
What are our views on this point ? 

1. The same as those of all regenerated churches, 
namely : that the supper is to be received only by 
those who have been converted and baptized. This 
is exactly our ground in common with them. But 
what they call baptism, we call a substitute for it, 
unless it be the burial of a believer upon his own 
confession of faith. 

2. We hold that the eternal salvation of a man 
depends no more on the supper than on baptism. 
Bread and wine, taken in the supper, can bring no 
blessing to the soul that water in baptism fails to 
bring, and neither of them has anything to do with 
the bestowment of special grace from God. They 
are both of equal authority, both of equal solemnity, 
both of equal benefit, both symbolical acts, and 
nothing more. The first preaches Christ's burial 
and resurrection, the second " shows " his death till 
he comes. As we obey him in submitting to the 



44 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

first, so we preach him in partaking of the second. 
They are monuments of Christ's great work, but not 
renovators of the soul. Only the blood of the 
Lamb, and the Holy Spirit, can do that, and neither 
of the ordinances has anything to do with it — they 
are both for other purposes. The thief on the cross 
was saved without either baptism or the supper. 

3. We hold that regeneration is the test of 
Christian character, and that that proves the unity 
of the real people of God, and not a place together 
at the Lord's table. No man could do a Baptist 
greater injustice, than to say that he un christianizes 
all those with whom he cannot sit down at the table. 
A true Baptist believes that thousands and millions 
of his brethren, who belong to other churches, are 
holy in heart and life, nay, may be better than he is, 
in that respect. Bat he finds nothing in the Scrip- 
tures making a common seat at the table either a 
a proof of love amongst brethren, or a test of 
Christian character. There have been thousands, 
from the days of Judas Iscariot down, who have 
taken a seat at the table, without either love to 
Christ or his people, or the possession of Christian 
character. If I believed that the supper was intended 
to be a test of Christian fellowship between regen- 
erated men, then I would go to the table with any 
converted man, whether he had been baptized or 
not. But I believe nothing of the sort. So far from 
it, I neither regard it as a duty or privilege to sit 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 45 

down at the supper table with any other Baptist 
church, but that under whose watch-care I live. If 
we held the Lord's table to be what other Christian 
brethren who are not Baptists seem to regard it, 
we should practice what they do in regard to its 
observance, but we do not believe as they do about 
the question. As we understand the matter, we 
neither Christianize those that we sit down with, 
nor unchristianize those that we do not sit down 
with; but we simply preach Christ's death by a 
symbolical act, as a church, just as an individual 
would preach Christ verbally. Christian unity is 
shown when believers come to the "unity of the 
faith," not the table. When they are baptized into 
one body," and called in " one hope of their calling" 
— by regeneration, which adopts them into the family 
of God — or as Paul puts it, when they become mem- 
bers of Christ, "of his flesh, and of his bones "—and 
not when they sit side by side, and partake of bread 
from a harvest field, and wine from a vineyard. 
That is a very easy way of showing your love to 
each other. Two strangers may sit side by side, at 
the table, who never saw each other before, and 
never pass a word to each other, and will never 
meet again on earth. Bat what love have they 
shown to each other ? That is a very cheap sort of 
love, I think. But the Christian love that the Bible 
talks about, as the test of Christian character and 
fellowship, is, according to James, to feed and clothe 



46 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

" a destitute brother or sister "; according to Paul, 
"to distribute to the necessities of saints, and in 
honor to prefer one another," for the strong to 
"bear the infirmity of the weak," "to bear each 
other's burdens," and so fulfill the law of Christ,— to 
"pray for each other," "to forgive each other," "to 
edify each other" "to weep with them that weep, 
and rejoice with them that rejoice" — in a word, to 
"do good of every sort to them who are of the 
household of faith." John puts the test even 
higher than that, when he claims that we " ought to 
lay down our lives for the brethren," if need be. 
When a man can push these divine truths aside, and 
measure his love to Christians by his willingness to 
take a sip of wine and a morsel of bread with them, 
it seems to be worth his while to ask on his knees, 
whether it is setting up Christ's standard of disci- 
pleship and fellowship, or his own. 

These are the views that Baptists hold. What is 
there in all this to justify men in speaking against 
us everywhere? I put that question to you in 
candor. I am happy to say to you, that there are 
some men who do not speak against us, and they are 
not Baptists. John Locke ought to know what he 
was talking about, when he said, "The Baptists were 
from the beginning, the firm advocates of absolute 
liberty — just and true liberty, equal and impartial 
liberty." Sir James Mcintosh says, " The Baptists 



BAPTIST FAITH AND PRACTICE. 47 

suffered more than any other, under Charles II, 
because they professed the principles of religious 
liberty." Jeremy Taylor says, " Freedom of con- 
science, unlimited freedom of mind, was from the 
first the trophy of the Baptists." Our own Wash- 
ing-ton used words just as affectionate; and in 
August, 1789, at the request of the Baptists, he 
recommended to Congress that amendment to the 
Constitution which says that " Congress shall make 
no law respecting the establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the exercise thereof." Bancroft, our 
great historian, and Judge Story, our great jurist, 
speak of us in the same manner. I can assure you 
that we never blush, when we remember that Milton 
and Bunyan, Sir Harry Vane and John Hampden, 
and Koger Williams, were all Baptist laymen. IS or 
when we think that John Gill and Andrew Fuller, 
Adoniram Judson and William Carey, Kobert Hall 
and Charles Spurgeon, Horatio Hackett and Thomas 
Conant, were Baptist missionaries, scholars and 
ministers. And as to other denominations ; I only 
wish that we used the Bible more in public worship, 
as Episcopalians do; that we had as learned a ministry 
as our Presbyterian brethren have — as much pathos 
and zeal as our Methodist brethren — as much sim- 
plicity as the Society of Friends — and as much self- 
sacrifice as the Roman Catholics— and a good deal 
more heart-felt religion than either we or they have 
at present. God knows I love them all, and if they 



48 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

would stop scolding us, and pray for us twice where 
they speak unkindly of us once, they would be 
happier and we should be better. God bless them 
all, I say. Amen. 



THE INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 



BY REV. J. B. JETER, D. D., RICHMOND, VA. 



11 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God."— 2 Timo 
thy iii. 16. 

There are among theologians various theories of 
inspiration ; but we shall notice only two of them. 
One is that God communicated his truth to the 
minds of bis servants, prophets and apostles, and 
they retained it in their memories, and expounded it 
in their discourses by the use of their natural facul- 
ties, without divine aid or supervision. The other — 
that generally held by evangelical Christians — is that 
God not only communicated truth to the minds of his 
servants, but exercised over them an influence by 
which they were enabled to reveal it, by speech or 
writing, without any mistake, and in the manner 
best suited to secure the end of the revelation. It 
is to the examination of these theories that our arti- 
cle is devoted. 

That God can inspire men to reveal his truth in- 
fallibly to the world, it is atheistic to deny. That 
plenary inspiration seems necessary to secure the 
end of the avowed purpose of the Scriptures — that 
men may believe in Christ, and by believing secure 



50 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

everlasting life — can hardly be questioned. Still it 
must be conceded, that not only the reality, but the 
measure and manner of the inspiration of the Scrip- 
tures, must be learned from their own testimony. 
What do they teach on the subject? Did their 
writers claim to be divinely inspired? Did they 
assume to be partially or fully inspired ? Did they 
say or do anything incompatible with their full in- 
spiration % We should come to the Scriptures, with 
childlike docility, to learn what they teach on these 
points. 

Moses was the first of the inspired writers. His 
inspiration is proved by the present condition of the 
Jews, accurately described in Deut. xxviii. The 
manner of his inspiration is given in xviii. 18. The 
Lord said unto Moses: "I will raise them up a 
prophet like unto thee, and will put my words in his 
mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall 
command him." The prophecy relates to the Mes- 
siah, and he was to have the words of God put into 
his mouth, and in this plenary inspiration was to be 
like unto Moses. David, the Psalmist, said : " The 
Spirit of the Lord spake by me, and his word was in 
my tongue." 2 Sam. xxiii. 2. " The Lord spake thus 
to me, * * * and instructed me," is the language 
of Isa. viii. 11. His prophecies were a mere reitera- 
tion of the words of the Lord: "Thus saith the 
Lord, behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone," 
etc., xxviii. 16. Jeremiah begins one of his prophe- 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 51 

cies in these words : "The word that the Lord spake 
against Babylon and against the land of the Chal- 
deans by Jeremiah the prophet.' 7 50:7. In many 
other passages, he claimed that his words were the 
words of the Lord. ix. 11, xiii. 15, etc. Amos pro- 
fessed to speak the very words of God : " Hear this 
word that the Lord hath spoken against yon, O house 
of Israel." hi. 1. Micah closes a prophecy with the 
words: "The mouth of the Lord of hosts hath 
spoken it." iv. 4. " The Lord put a word in Balaam's 
mouth, and said, Return unto Balak, and thus shalt 
thou speak." Num. xxiii. 5. 

It would be easy to multiply quotations of this 
kind ; but if the above passages do not establish the 
fact that the writers of the Old Testament claimed 
plenary inspiration, it is impossible for language to 
do it. God spoke by the prophets. In a sense 
their words were their own ; but in a higher, truer 
sense they were the words of God. There was no 
possibility for them to err in their words, unless God 
could be mistaken. 

When Christ appeared in the world, the writings 
of Moses and the prophets, called, by way of emi- 
nence, the Scriptures, were held in high estimation 
among the Jews. How did Christ respect them ? He 
was " God manifest in the flesh," and knew perfectly 
their origin, history, contents and authority. He 
treated them with the greatest reverence ; and never 
uttered a word to indicate that he deemed them 



52 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

human and fallible, as well as divine and inerrable. 
He pronounced them the sure preservative from 
error : " Ye do err," said he to the Jews, " not know- 
ing the Scriptures." Matt. xxii. 29. Could this be 
true, if the Scriptures themselves abounded in 
errors ! They might, in that case, have been seduced 
into error by their knowledge of them. Listen 
further to the testimony of Jesus: "The Scripture 
must be fulfilled." Mark xiv. 49. "The Scripture 
cannot be broken." John x. 35. If the Scriptures 
" must be fulfilled," it is because their predictions 
are true and accurate : if they " cannot be broken? it 
is because there is no defect or weakness in them. 
Jesus, resting his claims to the Messiahship on the 
testimony of the Scriptures, commended them to 
the undoubting confidence and careful study of his 
hearers: "Search," said he, "the Scriptures; for in 
them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are they 
which testify of me." John v. 39. 

The evangelist John furnishes incidentally the 
strongest possible proof of his high estimate of the 
Scriptures. He says: "The disciples believed the 
Scripture, and the word which Jesus had said." 
John ii. 22. The apostle coupled the Scripture and 
the word of Jesus as of equal credibility. Could he 
have done this without dishonoring Jesus, if the 
Scripture had partaken of the errors prevalent in 
the ages of its several authors % 

Let us now examine the testimony of the apostles 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 53 

on the inspiration of the Old Testament. Their own 
inspiration we shall now take for granted, and prove 
in another place. Peter, proposing to fill the vacancy 
in the apostleship caused by the apostasy and death 
of Judas, said: "Men and brethren, this Scripture 
must needs have been fulfilled, which the Holy 
Ghost by the mouth of David spake before concern- 
ing Judas.' 7 Acts i. 16. The apostle had reference 
to Psa. xii. 9. The text had not a very clear refer- 
ence to Judas ; but Peter, himself inspired, declared 
that it was spoken by the Holy Ghost, that the mouth 
of David was merely the organ for uttering the 
prophecy, and that its fulfilment was a matter of 
necessity, ^o advocate for plenary, verbal inspira- 
tion has ever expressed it more clearly or strongly 
than did Peter on this occasion. To the same effect 
was the language of all the disciples, when Peter 
and John, released from imprisonment and the power 
of their enemies, "reported all that the chief priests 
and elders had said unto them." " They lifted up 
their voice to God with one accord," saying, " Thou 
art God, * ' • * who by the mouth of thy ser- 
vant David hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and 
the people imagine vain things % n Acts iv. 25. These 
words were not David's, but God's. David uttered, 
but God indited them; and filled them with a mean- 
ing of which probably the Psalmist had but little 
conception. 1 Pet. i. 11, 12. On this subject the 
teaching of Paul is explicit and full : " All Scripture 



54 BAPTIST DOCTEINES. 

is given by inspiration of God ; and is profitable for 
doctrine (teaching), for reproof, for correction, for 
instruction in righteousness, that the man of God 
may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works." 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. The apostle affirms, not 
only that Scripture, but that "all Scripture" is 
Divinely inspired. The language clearly means, not 
merely that every book of Scripture, but that all the 
contents of every book, historical, geographical, and 
scientific, as well as doctrinal, is inspired of God; 
and therefore infallible, and fitted to make the man 
of God perfect. As Paul teaches the measure, so 
Peter states the manner, of Divine inspiration. He 
says : "Prophecy came not in old time (at any time. 
Mar.) by the will of man ; but holy men of God spake 
(and doubtless also wrote) as they were moved by 
the Holy Ghost." God employed holy men to reveal 
his truth to the world. They did not speak or write 
by their own knowledge or will ; but as they were 
enlightened, guided and influenced by the Holy 
Spirit. Their messages were instructive, threaten- 
ing, encouraging or consolatory, according to the 
Divine will. We think it an error to say that the 
Scriptures do not teach the manner of inspiration. 
We do not see how the manner of Divine inspiration 
could be more clearly taught than in this language 
of the apostle Peter. The manner, too, is such as to 
preclude the possibility of error in the Scriptures. 
Surely the Holy Spirit, infinitely wise and good, can 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. Ob 

move holy men to teach only what is true, and pure, 
and adapted to subserve the ends of Divine reve- 
lation. 

Having considered the inspiration of the Old 
Testament Scriptures, we propose now to examine 
that of the New Testament writings. If Christianity 
is true and a consummation of the Mosaic economy, 
the inspiration of the apostolic writings may be 
fairly inferred from that of the prophetic Scriptures. 
It is unreasonable to suppose that the foundation of 
the edifice was laid with Divine wisdom, and its 
completion left to human weakness and fallibility. 
The Spirit of inspiration which commenced, we may 
be quite sure, finished the volume of religious in- 
struction to men. We are not left, however, to the 
uncertainty of conjecture or of logical deduction on 
this subject. We have the most abundant evidence 
of the plenary inspiration of the writers of the New 
Testament. 

When Jesus sent out his apostles to announce the 
approach of the kingdom of heaven, he informed 
them that they would be subjected to fierce perse- 
cutions, delivered up to councils, scourged in the 
synagogues, and brought before governors and 
kings ; and for their encouragement and comfort, he 
said : " When they shall deliver you up, take no 
thought how or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be 
given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. 



56 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your 
Father which speaketh in you." Matt. x. 19, 20. It 
is impossible to imagine an inspiration more full and 
complete than this promised to the apostles, extend- 
ing to matter, language and manner. True, this 
promise had special reference to the apostles in their 
persecutions ; but we cannot reasonably suppose 
that they had an inspiration less full and perfect for 
the prosecution of their work, than they possessed 
to extricate them from the perils into which it 
brought them. 

Jesus, in his memorable farewell discourse to his 
disciples, designing to comfort them under their 
approaching sorrow, and fit them for their great life- 
work, said to them : " The comforter, which is the 
Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, 
he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to 
your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto 
you. * * * Howbeit when he, the Spirit 
of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth ; 
for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever 
he shall hear, that shall he speak ; and he will 
show you things to come. He shall glorify me ; 
for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it 
unto you." John xiv. 26 ; xvi. 13, 14. We have 
nowhere so full an account of the manner and 
measure of Divine inspiration as in these pas- 
sages. Christ was to be the chief matter of revela- 
tion : " He (the Spirit) shall glorify me (Christ) ; for 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 57 

he shall receive of mine, and s!<ow it unto you." 
The apostles were not to be left to the unaided 
exercise of their fallible memories in reporting the 
truth : He (the Spirit) shall "bring- all things to your 
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." 
They were to have the fullest instruction for the 
prosecution of their mission : " He (the Spirit) shall 
teach you all things— shall guide you into all truth." 
They were to be endowed with the gift of prophecy : 
" He (the Spirit) will show you things to come." 
Thus equipped, they were to enter on the work 
which Christ commenced, and in the prosecution of 
which he sacrificed his life. 

When Jesus was risen from the dead, he commis- 
sioned his apostles to enter on their life-work, with 
the promise : " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto 
the end of the world." Matt, xxviii. 20. The pres- 
ence which Jesus promised to his disciples was not 
his personal presence, but the presence of his 
representative. "It is expedient for you," he said, 
" that I go away ; for if I go not away the Comforter 
will not come ; but if I depart, I will send him unto 
you." John xvi. 7. They were commanded "not to 
depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of 
the Father," which they had heard of him— the 
promise that they should " be endued with power 
from on high." Lu. xxiv. 49. The apostles obeyed 
the command of their Lord, and continued in Jeru- 
salem, with the other disciples, men and women, in 



5S BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

prayer and supplication. " When the day of Pente- 
cost was fully come, * * * they were all filled 
with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other 
tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 
i. 1, 4. The promise of their inspiration was most 
strikingly fulfilled. They were not only filled with 
the Spirit, but they spake as he gave them utterance, 
in languages which they had never learned. Their 
inspiration was clearly verbal, and must have in- 
cluded thoughts as well as words. Their utterances 
were not senseless jargon ; but clear and convincing 
and impressive speech, piercing the hearts of them 
that heard it, and extorting from them the cry : •' Men 
and brethren, what shall we do 1 " 

Paul was not a participant in the Pentecostal 
baptism. He was introduced into the apostolic 
ministry by a special Divine arrangement. He said : 
" I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was 
preached of me, is not after men. For I neither 
received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by 
the revelation of Jesus Christ." Gal. i. 11, 12. Paul, 
having received the gospel by direct revelation from 
heaven, was not left to the exercise of his unaided 
powers in its proclamation. To the Corinthians he 
wrote : " Now we have received, not the spirit of the 
world, but the Spirit which is of God ; that we might 
know the things that are freely given to us of God. 
Which things also we speak, not in the words which 
man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 59 

teacheth." 1 Cor. ii. 12, 13. Iu this language Paul 
claims for himself and others, not only to know the 
things freely given to them of God— the things per- 
taining to their salvation— by the revelation of the 
Holy Spirit ; but also that they spoke them in words 
which he taught them. 

The apostles were inspired, not only to preach but 
to teach the gospel ; and they taught by their writ- 
ings as well as by their voices. It is unreasonable 
to suppose that they were not equally inspired to 
teach by their writings and their oral addresses. 
The apostle Peter classes the epistles of Paul, which 
form a large part of the New Testament, with the 
Scriptures of the Old Testament, whose inspiration 
we have already shown. He says : " Our beloved 
brother Paul according to the wisdom given unto him 
hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speak- 
ing in them of these things ; in which are some things 
hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned 
and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scrip- 
tures, unto their own destruction." 2 Pet. iii. 15, 16. 
The epistles of Paul are not only classed with other 
inspired writings, but the peril of perverting them 
is clearly and strongly pointed out. If Paul's epistles 
were divinely inspired, there can be no ground to 
question the inspiration of all the apostolic writings. 
The apostles not merely claimed to be inspired ; but 
furnished the most conclusive evidence of their 
inspiration. The author of the epistle to the He- 



60 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

brews exhorted his brethren to give earnest heed to 
the things which they heard, and not to neglect the 
great salvation, which at first began to be spoken by 
the Lord, and was confirmed by them that heard him, 
(that is, the apostles), " God also bearing them wit- 
ness, both with signs, and wonders, and with divers 
miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to 
his own will.' 7 Heb. ii. 1-4. It is easy to claim 
Divine inspiration. Impostors have done it in all 
ages. Miracles are the seal and proof of inspiration. 
Even Jesus did not claim to be received on his own 
testimony. " If I bear witness of myself," said he, 
"my witness is not true" — should not be regarded. 
f 'The works which the Father hath given me to 
finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, 
that the Father hath sent me." John v. 31, 36. The 
ministry and the messages of the apostles were con- 
firmed by miracles which only God could enable 
them to perform, and by signs and wonders which 
only he could show. The words of an apostle, in the 
execution of his commission, were of Divine author- 
ity. " If any man think himself," said Paul, u to be 
a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that the 
things that I write unto you are the commandments 
of the Lord." 1 Cor. xiv. 37. 

It would be interesting to show how the exact 
truth of the writings of the New Testament is con- 
firmed by the testimony of ancient and authentic 
history, by the monuments and coins which have 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 61 

descended to us from the early times, and by the 
originality and purity of the sacred Scriptures ; but 
this is quite beyond the limit prescribed for this 
article. 

Objections to plenary inspiration are founded, as 
far as we have observed, not on any scriptural state- 
ments on the subjects, but on supposed mistakes 
and errors in the sacred writings. These relate 
chiefly to the creation of the world — the origin of 
man — the misquotations and misinterpretations of 
the Old Testament Scriptures by the writers of the 
Xew. The full discussion of these subjects would 
fill a volume. A few points we may briefly notice. 

The Scriptures were written in remote ages, by 
different authors, in several languages, and among 
people whose tastes, customs, institutions and modes 
of thought were widely different from ours. That 
the interpretation of such documents, admitting 
their full inspiration and harmony, would be difficult, 
we may reasonably suppose. The lack of a perfect 
knowledge of the languages in which they were 
writtten would, of itself, present a formidable ob- 
stacle to a satisfactory exegesis. To this, however, 
must be added the difficulties of interpretation 
arising from ignorance of the history, modes of com- 
puting time and other things, prevailing opinions, 
and social and political customs, of the people for 
whose immediate benefit these writings were de- 



62 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

signed. Everybody knows that our laws, prepared 
by the wisest and most careful legislators, and 
written in our own language, are capable of various 
interpretations, and lead to almost endless perplexi- 
ties. Nothing short of a perpetual miracle could 
prevent the misunderstanding of the Scriptures, in 
many cases, by modern expositors,, however clearly 
they might have been understood by those to whom 
they were originally addressed. 

We should seek to harmonize these apparent con- 
tradictions of the Scriptures, not by denying their 
inspiration, or that of any portion of them ; but by 
subjecting them to a fair and faithful application of 
the laws of exegesis. These seeming inconsistencies 
usually vanish before candid investigation, as mist 
before the rising sun. If there be some which do not 
yield to exegetical laws and to our limited investiga- 
tions, it may be well for us to call to remembrance 
our own ignorance and liability to err. " We are but 
of yesterday, and know nothing." Certain it is that 
many seemingly insurmountable obstacles in the 
interpretation of the Scriptures have vanished be- 
fore patient investigation and increasing knowledge. 
We mean to say that we should not infer from our 
ignorance the fallibility of the Scriptures. The 
error, to employ modern phraseology, may be sub- 
jective and not objective. 

The most plausible and prevalent objection to the 
entire inspiration of the Scriptures is based on the 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. G3 

Mosaic account of the creation of the world. Sev- 
eral things on the subject demand our attention. 
Moses was undoubtedly one of the greatest, if he 
was not the greatest, of all the mere men who have 
dwelt on our planet. He was trained in the palace 
of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the most learned of all 
the early nations. He was instructed in all the arts 
and wisdom of that renowned people. He was the 
founder and ruler of the most wonderful nation of 
the earth. To him the world is more indebted for 
its civilization, laws and morality than to any other 
mere man. To this day he is exerting a moulding 
influence on all civilized peoples. His prophetic in- 
spiration cannot be disputed. He described 3,000 
years ago the present condition of the Jews, a most 
singular people, with a precision that cannot be ex- 
celled by any modern observer. When such a man, 
living in the infancy of the world, with all the sources 
of historical and traditional information at command, 
gives an acoount of the origin of the world, it must, 
apart from his claims to inspiration, be entitled to 
the highest consideration. When that account pro- 
ceeds from one who furnished the strongest proof 
of his inspiration, it should not be set aside without 
the most conclusive evidence. 

There are discrepancies between the popular in- 
terpretations of the Mosaic history and the theories 
of the earth's origin adopted by modern scientists. 
It should be remembered, however, that science has 



64 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

been constantly changing its ground, and has not 
yet reached a permanent footing. It will be time 
enough when scientists attain to united and settled 
opinions, concerning the origin of the world 3 for 
theologians to consider whether they are in harmony 
with the teaching of Moses, or what change in the 
interpretation of the Mosaic history is needed to 
conform it to the clear and established decisions of 
science. We are friends of true science, and calmly 
await its discoveries. It has been sarcastically 
asked whether the Mosaic history of creation has 
any settled meaning. We frankly confess that an 
account so brief, relating to a subject so far beyond 
our experience and observation, and of which man- 
kind, and even the philosophers among them, are so 
profoundly ignorant, is of very difficult and uncer- 
tain interpretation. Scientists, however, should re- 
member that their theories of the origin of the 
world have been quite as variable and unsatisfactory 
as have been expositions of the Mosaic history. 

No portion of the Mosaic record is so frequently 
and confidently quoted to disprove its inspiration as 
the account of the origin of man. According to 
this record, man has not been an inhabitant of the 
earth more than 6,000 or 8,000 years. To this esti- 
mate we firmly cleave. Whether we consider the 
increase of the race, the monuments of the past, or 
the progress of arts and science within the historic 
period — some 3,300 years— we find not the slightest 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 65 

reason for giving to mankind an earlier origin. 
Scientists generally assign to man an origin dating 
from 10,000 to many millions of years in the past. 
We are not disturbed by such estimates. They cast 
no doubt on the inspiration of the Scriptures. Sup- 
pose the bones and rude works of a biped resemb- 
ling man may be found in the remote geological 
periods ; there is not the slightest evidence, histori- 
cal, traditional or scientific, to connect the creature 
with the Adamic race. Whether he was a rational 
creature, or a moral agent, or more resembled man 
or a gorilla, science can give us no information. 
•That man — the intellectual, moral, religious, progres- 
sive being— has been an inhabitant of the earth only 
a few thousand years, is a fact in harmony with the 
laws of the increase of human population, and all 
that can be gathered from history and tradition. 
Revelation relates to man, the present occupant of 
the earth, and not to some being of remote antiquity, 
real or imaginary. 

Another objection to the full inspiration of the 
Scriptures is derived from supposed misquotations 
or misunderstandings of the Old Testament by the 
writers of the Xew. If they really misquoted or 
misinterpreted the language of the Old Testament, 
the fact would be decisive proof of their want of 
entire inspiration ; but we conclude that no such 
proof can be furnished. The full discussion of this 
subject does not come within the range of our 

5 



hb BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

article, or of a dozen such articles. It belongs ap- 
propriately to the department of scriptural exegesis ; 
and its thorough investigation might occupy a large 
volume. We submit a few remarks on the subject. 
The apostles and evangelists quoted from the 
Septuagint translation of the Scriptures as well as 
from the Hebrew originals. Their quotations were 
not made with verbal exactness, after the style of 
modern quotations, but with great freedom, preserv- 
ing the sense and modifying the phraseology of the 
Scriptures according to their pleasure. Nothing is 
clearer than that many of the prophecies, even 
historical statements, of the Old Testament had a 
double meaning. They were literally fufilled or 
enacted in the days of the prophets; but they had 
another and a higher accomplishment in later times. 
Take for an illustration of this statement, Hos. xi. 1 ; 
"I called my son out of Egypt." This is the state- 
ment of a plain fact. God loved Israel and called 
him out of Egyptian bondage. The statement was 
more than a fact : it was a prophecy to be fulfilled 
in the life of Jesus. Joseph and Mary, the mother 
of Jesus, were providentially directed to go down 
into Egypt "that it might be fulfilled which was 
spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of 
Egypt have I called my son." Matt. ii. 15. We 
know of no quotation from the Old Testament in the 
New, in which the sense seems to be so clearly mis- 
understood ; and yet we cannot for a moment doubt 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 0< 

that the language of Hosea was designed by the 
Holy Ghost to have its fulfilment in the return of 
Jesus from his exile in Egypt. In all other cases of 
like character, it will be found, we judge, that the 
seeming misquotations from the Hebrew Scriptures 
by the writers of the New Testament, are interpreted 
by a higher inspiration than that possessed by their 
authors. 

The seeming contradictions between the inspired 
writers vanish before enlightened investigation. 
Take a notable specimen of this class. Paul writes, 1 
Cor. x. 8 : " Neither let us commit fornication, as some 
of them (the Israelites) committed, and fell in one 
day three and twenty thousand." We turn to Num- 
bers xxv. 9, and read : " Those that died in the plague 
were twenty and four thousand." Now, here is a 
seeming contradiction between Paul and Moses; but 
it is only seeming. It was not necessary for the 
purpose of Paul that he should state the exact num- 
ber of the Israelites who perished in the wilderness. 
He said there fell in one day three and twenty thou- 
sand. That is no contradiction of the statement of 
Moses that there died in the plague twenty and four 
thousand. Perhaps this number died in several days. 
Take another solution of the difficulty. Suppose the 
number who died was twenty-three thousand seven 
hundred and sixty-nine ; it would have been awkward 
and needless for Paul, under the guidance of the 
Holy Spirit, to mention the exact number. It was 



68 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

also quite sufficient for Moses to state the number at 
(about) twenty-four thousand, as such round numbers 
are usually understood. This seeming inaccuracy 
of the inspired writers affords no proof of their lia- 
bility to error and mistakes. 

Paul says : " I thank God that I baptized none of 
you, but Crispus and Gaius ; lest any should say I 
baptized in mine own name. And I baptized also the 
household of Stephanas ; besides I know not whether 
I baptized any other." 1 Cor. i. 14, 16. This passage 
is supposed to furnish evidence that the inspiration 
of Paul did not preserve him from errors of mem- 
ory. We think the conclusion illogical. The Scrip- 
tures do not teach that inspired men knew or 
remembered everything, but that they were so 
taught and their memories were so refreshed, that 
they uttered and recorded only what was true. 
They exercised their own understandings and mem- 
ories; but were so superintended and guided in 
their exercise as to be free from mistakes. This lan- 
guage of Paul confirms rather than refutes this view. 
He made no mistake. He reported what was true, 
and only what was true. He baptized Crispus, Gaius 
and the household of Stephanas ; and it was not 
necessary for his purpose that he should remember 
whether he had baptized any others. Had it been, 
we may be quite sure that the Holy Spirit would have 
brought them to his remembrance. John xiv. 26. 

On the whole, the more carefully the Scriptures 



INSPIRATION OF THE SCRIPTURES. 69 

are examined, the more obviously their entire inspi- 
ration appears. It is really wonderful to notice how, 
amid the conflicting systems of science, philosophy 
and politics, the inspired writers steered their course, 
without falling into errors, which would have dis- 
credited their inspiration. Such, for example, as 
abound in all the systems of heathen mythology. Let 
us, then, reverently receive the Scriptures as an au- 
thentic and perfect revelation from God, interpret 
them by the laws which common sense and careful 
study supply, and live according to their directions, 
and we shall not fail to secure a blessed immortality. 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCKIPTUBAL. 



BY REV. WM. CATHCART, D.D., PHILADELPHIA, PA. 



"Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none 
effect by your tradition. Matt. xv. 6. 

The baptism of the New Testament must be ad- 
ministered in the name of the Trinity, and in this 
respect it stands alone ; no other act of obedience 
must be performed in the name of the Father, and 
of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity took 
part in the baptism of Christ : the Saviour entered the 
Jordan, the Spirit descended upon Him in the form 
of a dove, and the Father, through the parted heav- 
ens, said : " This is my beloved Son in whom I well 
pleased." Baptism is the most important duty a be- 
liever can perform; the Trinity has invested it with 
the weightiest sanctions ; and it should receive the 
reverential obedience of the Saviour's earthly family. 
Anything which has for its object to pervert the 
baptismal institution is a grievous affront to Jesus, 
and a great wrong to His people. The nullification 
of a gospel law aims a rebellious blow at the divine 
Founder of Christianity ; and as He cannot appoint 
anything useless, the removal of a gospel ordinance 
is a calamity. The Saviour looks in sorrow upon the 




SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, PHILADELPHIA. 

KEV. VTM. CATHCAKT, D. D., PASTOF. 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 71 

sprinkling of unconscious babes, and he feels about 
those who receive and practice it, as he regarded 
the persons about whom the text was uttered: Thus 
have ye made the commandment of God of no effect 
by your tradition. 

When the Saviour arose from the dead He was 
invested with the dominion of the Trinity over all 
worlds, and this special sovereignty He shall retain 
until His elect are all saved in their souls and bod- 
ies; then the royal dignity bestowed immediately 
after His resurrection shall be delivered to the First 
Person of the Trinity, and Father, Son, and Spirit 
shall resume their eternal and equal empire over the 
universe. In Matt, xxviii. 18, 19, 20, the Saviour 
says, "All power (authority) is given unto me in 
heaven and in earth ; go ye, therefore, and teach all 
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, 
and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching 
them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you; and, lo, I am with you alway, even 
unto the end of the world." This is the Saviour's 
inaugural address as He enters upon His revived 
life, His new and exclusive sovereignty over the 
worlds. He never issued such an address before. 
The authority He claims is not divine omnipotence, — 
that He always had, and every other attribute of 
God, — but the sole monarchy of all worlds ; and He 
never commanded His disciples to teach all nations ; 
previous to His death, His mission and the toils of 



72 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

His servants were restricted to the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel. 

The instruction to be imparted to the nations is 
about the gospel and its facts, doctrines and pre- 
cepts; the death, resurrection, intercession, right- 
eousness, and commandments of Christ. These les- 
sons are not for the unconscious infants of all na- 
tions; they would be incomprehensible to them. 
When it is said " The Germans are a nation of sol- 
diers," the statement is understood at once, and no 
one dreams that women and children have been 
drilled and armed by the first military nation in the 
world. The verb to "teach" is- "to make disciples," 
and the command of the Saviour is to baptize them, 
not the nations, but the disciples ; the word trans- 
lated "them" in the Greek text, is in the masculine 
gender, and the word rendered " nations " in the 
neuter. There is to be no baptism before instruc- 
tion, unless we have a new revelation from heaven 
showing that the Saviour was mistaken when He 
commanded His apostles first to teach and then to 
baptize. After the ambassadors of Christ have made 
disciples and baptized them, they are then to teach 
them to observe all things whatsoever He has com- 
manded. This commission has nothing to do with 
unconscious infants, and as it is the only authority 
for the practice of baptism in the Christian Church, 
there is no pretence for the existence of infant bap- 
tism by divine appointment. The form of the com- 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 73 

mission given by Mark — " Go ye into all the world, 
and preach the gospel to every creature ; but he that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; he that be- 
heveth not shall be damned." — xvi. 15, 16, shows faith 
to be a prerequisite to baptism. Why faith should pre- 
cede baptism in the Saviour's words, unless it should 
exist in the disciple's heart before the baptism, we 
cannot tell. Unless He meant to mislead His apostles 
and the whole saved family on earth, faith is indis- 
pensable to gospel baptism. The two forms of the 
commission are agreed in leaving no lurking place 
for infant baptism. And the commission is in strict 
accordance with the Baptist usages of His disciples 
while the Saviour walked with them in this world. 
John says, " When the Lord knew how the Phari- 
sees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more dis- 
ciples than John; though Jesus himself baptized 
not, but his disciples, he left Judea and departed 
again into Galilee." Chap. iv. 1, 2, 3. Here the steps 
of entrance into the kingdom are clearly marked; 
the first thing is to be "made a disciple," and 
the next is to be baptized. Infinite wisdom could 
not point out more clearly the qualifications for the 
subjects of baptism. 

When the day of Pentecost was fully come, an im- 
mense multitude of people gathered around Peter 
and the other apostles, and Peter preached to them. 
The throng was composed of Jews, many of whom 
had come from distant countries; there were among 



74 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

them those who " with wicked hands had crucified 
and slain" Jesus; and as the memorable discourse 
was delivered, the Holy Spirit applied it with great 
power to the hearts of the multitude, and they re- 
ceived new hearts, leading them to lament their sins 
and to cry out, " Men and brethren, what shall we 
do ? Then Peter said unto them, 4 Eepent and be 
baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus 
Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive 
the gift of the Holy Spirit; for the promise is unto 
you and to your children, and to all that are afar off r 
even as many as the Lord our God shall call.' Then 
they that gladly received his word were baptized; 
and the same day there were added unto them about 
three thousand souls." Acts ii. 37-41. This was the 
first baptism after the descent of the Spirit. It is a 
key to the Comforter's interpretation of the Saviour's 
great commission, as he directed the proceedings of 
the inspired apostles. The subjects of the baptism 
had aided in the Saviour's death ; their grief of 
heart made them utter despairing cries ; they gladly 
received Peter's word about Christ's glorious gospel, 
and after that they were baptized ; they were disci- 
ples who believed on Jesus as the commission re- 
quired. And though there were three thousand of 
them, with unconscious infants in their families in 
many cases, no doubt, yet all the baptized " received 
Peter's word gladly," and without this discipleship 
of the heart they could not have been buried with 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 75 

Christ by immersion. When Peter says, u The pro- 
mise is unto you and to your children, and to all that 
are afar off, even so many as the Lord our God shall 
calif 7 he means that remission of sins and the Holy 
Spirit will be given to the children of those whom 
he addressed, and to others in distant places whom 
11 God should call n to repentance and faith in Jesus. 
The call of God to repentance was never given to an 
unconscious infant ; it is only given to such " chil- 
dren" Of Israel, or of the Gentiles, as have reached 
responsible years. 

When Philip went down and preached in Samaria r 
"they believed Philip preaching the things concern- 
ing the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus 
Christ, and they were baptized, both men and wom- 
en." Acts viii. 12. Here the persons baptized had 
become disciples by putting their trust in Jesus ; and 
persons of both sexes recieved the sacred rite. 
When Clovis, the first king of the Franks, was bap- 
tized, Hincmar, archbishop of Eheims, says, " More- 
over from his army three thousand men were bap- 
tized, without counting women and children ; " the 
children recieved the same trine immersion as the 
men and women, and the historian of the event does 
not forget them. Kor is there any reason to suppose 
that Luke would have neglected the children, if 
Philip had baptized them, since he particularizes the 
candidates as men and women. 

Simon the sorcerer pretended to believe, and as 



76 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

an apparent believer he was baptized at the same 
time and place. 

The eunuch was baptized after he professed faith 
in Jesus, even though the verse be given up as an 
interpolation, "And Philip said, If thou believest 
with all thine heart thou may est" etc. The African 
royal treasurer solicited baptism, and after receiving 
it, " went on his way rejoicing," as a forgiven disciple 
of Christ. 

When Paul was smitten down by the lightning and 
convicted by the Spirit of God, he speedily put his 
trust in the Saviour of whom he had heard much, 
and felt himself ready for any service demanded by 
the divine Eedeemer. Ananias, commissioned by 
Jehovah, commanded him to "arise and be baptized 
and wash away his sins calling on the name of the 
Lord." Acts xxii. 16. Paul's theology had faith as 
its mainspring : "lam not ashamed of the gospel of 
Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to 
every one that believeth." Eom. i. 16. According to 
Paul, faith grasped Christ, justified the soul before 
God, gave it peace, and washed out every one of its 
sins. Baptism in a figure washed out the believer's 
sins, and consequently it only belonged to him, who 
had put his trust in Jesus. The baptism adminis- 
tered to Paul is a testimony that he professed saving 
faith in Jesus ; it was believer's baptism. 

The household baptisms are regarded by some as 
strongholds of infant sprinkling. The family of Cor- 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 77 

nelius,the Romau centurion, is the first of these bap- 
tisms. Luke describes this soldier as a " devout man 
and one that feared God with all his house ; " and of 
those under his roof, he says, " They of the circum- 
cision who believed were astonished, as many as 
came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also 
was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit; for they 
heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. 
Then answered Peter, ' Can any man forbid water r 
that these should not be baptized, who have received 
the Holy Spirit as well as we!'" Acts x. 45-6-7. 
If the household of Cornelius was baptized along 
with himself and "his kinsmen and near friends,' 7 
the household feared God, for Luke says that Cor- 
nelius was a devout man who feared God "with all 
Ms house." And the people who were baptized re- 
ceived the Holy Spirit, during Peter's sermon, and 
the gift of speaking in strange tongues; and they 
magnified God. These persons could not be uncon- 
scious infants ; they were true believers. Lydia, a 
Jewess of Thyatira, was at Philippi, and going out of 
the city to worship on the Jewish Sabbath, with her 
countrymen by the river side, her heart was opened 
by the Lord "that she attended unto the things 
which were spoken of by Paul." And "she was 
baptized and her household," evidently in the river. 
Acts xvi. 13, 14, 15. From the account given by Luke, 
Lydia herself had a new heart, and nothing what- 
ever is said about her household. To prove that 



78 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

an unconscious infant was in it is impossible, and 
consequently no evidence for the baptism of such 
persons can be obtained from her record. It is ex- 
tremely probable that she was at the head of her 
family, and that it consisted of adults who aided in 
her business. The jailer at Philippi was roused at 
midnight by an earthquake ; and at first he was bent 
on killing himself, but the Spirit of God through the 
voice of Paul arrested him, and soon, as Paul and 
Silas " spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to 
all that were in his house, he and they believed; 
and he took them the same hour of the night, and 
washed their stripes, and he was baptized, he and 
all his, straightway; and when he had brought 
them into his house, he set meat before them, and 
rejoiced, believing in God with all his house." Acts 
xvi. 32, 33, 34. There is nothing to show that 
there was an unconscious infant in this household; 
the two saintly prisoners " spake the word of the 
Lord to him and to all that were in his house 71 ; 
and he "rejoiced, believing in God with all his 
house"; and the conclusion is very natural that 
infant baptism can find no favorable testimony here. 
It is said of Crispus that " he believed on the Lord 
with all his house, and many of the Corinthians, hear- 
ing, believed, and were baptized." Acts xviii. 8. It 
is very naturally judged that Crispus and his house- 
hold were baptized with the other Corinthian con- 
verts ; and if the father and his family were immersed, 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTUBAIi. 1 1) 

it is said that "lie believed on the Lord with all his 
house. 77 Here again there is nothing to favor the 
baptism of unconscious infants. The household 
of Stephanas was baptized by Paul, and he says of 
them : " Ye know the house of Steplanas that it is the 
first fruits of Achaia, and that they have addicted 
themselves to the ministry of the saints." 1 Cor. xvi. 
15. Here again there could be no baptized uncon- 
scious babe addicting itself to the ministry of the 
saints. There is no evidence in any one of these 
households which gives the slightest support to infant 
baptism; there is none in the commission; and as 
that practice needs a solid foundation, we are sur- 
prised to discover that it is built on a baseless sup- 
position. 

If we had positive evidence that there was an 
infant in every one of the households, we would 
know from the commission that it was not bap- 
tized. And even the words " whole family," or 
"household" are often used svith a limitation that 
would justify such a conviction. A resident of 
Gloucester, Massachusetts, has several sons and 
some very young daughters, and the sons are all en- 
gaged with himself in fishing, and the neighbors freely 
tell you that the whole family are employed in fishing. 
Every one who hears the statement understands in a 
moment that the mother and little children are ex- 
cepted. This use of the word household, or family, 
is common to all languages, and it occurs frequently 



80 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

in the Old Testament and in the New. Paul, in his 
epistle to Titus i. 11., speaking of the qualifications 
of a bishop, and warning him of certain vain talkers 
and deceivers, says, u whose mouths must be stopped, 
who subvert whole houses (families ), teaching things 
which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." The 
word translated houses is the plural of the word 
used to describe the "household" of Lydia, and the 
" house " of the jailer. It is beyond a doubt that 
unconscious infants were not in the mind of the 
inspired writer when he put Titus on his guard about 
deceitful talkers, whose tongues carried away whole 
houses from the simplicity of the gospel of Christ. 
There may have been infants in them, but the nature 
of Paul's advice showed that he did not include 
them at that time in the " houses." And so in the 
baptized households there may have been no chil- 
dren, or there may have been little ones, — we can 
only entertain a supposition about it. The baptism 
of Christ required faith, and as Peter and Paul were 
filled with inspiration and fidelity when they baptized 
the households, it is absolutely certain that they bap- 
tized none but professed believers. 

In Acts xix. 1-7, we have an account of twelve 
men whom John baptized, and it is supposed by 
many that Paul baptized them over again. Paul 
said to these men, "Have ye received the Holy 
Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto 
him ' We have not so much as heard whether there 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 81 

be any Holy Ghost.' And he said, Unto what 
then were ye baptized ? And they said, l Unto 
John's baptism.' Then said Paul, John verily bap- 
tized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto 
the people, that they should believe on him who 
should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus." 
Then John baptized in the name of Jesus just as 
we do. And dropping "this" in the fifth verse, 
which is not in the Greek, and supplying " that " 
we have the true meaning : " And when they heard 
that, they were baptized in the name of the Lord 
Jesus (in John's baptism) and when Paul laid his 
hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and 
they spake with tongues and prophesied." Paul did 
not baptize these men, — he only put his hands upon 
them, and then the Spirit's power to work miracles 
came upon them, the regenerating might of the 
Spirit having changed their hearts before. But 
these were men; no child was with one of them, and 
twelve men, too. Likely enough some of them had 
children. This baptism should have been noticed in 
the next list, but that Paul is thought by many to 
have rebaptized the twelve. 

John's Baptisms. — We entirely concur in the opin- 
ion of Calvin about John's baptism. He says : " The 
ministry of John was precisely the same as that 
which was afterwards committed to the apostles ; 
for their baptism was not different, though it was 



82 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

administered by different hands ; but the sameness 
of their doctrine shows their baptism to have been 
the same ; both baptized to repentance ; both to re- 
mission of sins ; both baptized in the name of Christ, 
from whom repentance and remission of sins pro- 
ceed. John said of Christ: i Behold the Lamb of 
God which taketh away the sin of the world/ thus 
acknowledging and declaring Him to be the sacrifice, 
acceptable to the Father, the procurer of righteous- 
ness, and the author of salvation. What could the 
apostles add to this confession ! Wherefore, let no 
one be disturbed by the attempts of the ancient 
writers to distinguish and separate one baptism from 
the other." Calvin's Institutes, II. lib. iv., cap. 15, 
see. 7. Matthew tells us that " there went out to John 
Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the region round 
about Jordan, and were baptized of him in Jordan, 
confessing their sins. ,,, iii. 5, 6. The parties whom 
John baptized were old enough to have committed 
sins, and to make confession of them. Mark i. 4, 5, 
states that "John did baptize in the wilderness, and 
preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of 
$ins ; and there went out unto him all the land of 
Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized 
©f him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins." 
Similar descriptions of John's baptism are elsewhere 
found in the New Testament, but they all speak the 
same language ; it was a baptism of repentance for 
the remission of sins, in which the baptized confessed 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 83 

their sins. Of this baptism no infant could be the 
subject, and there is absolutely nothing in the New 
Testament which permits the most shadowy infer- 
ence that any unconscious child ever received it. 

Allusions to Baptisms in the Xew Testament. — Paul 
says, in Eomans vi. 4, "Therefore we are buried 
with Christ by baptism into death, that like as Christ 
was raised up from the dead by the glory of the 
father, even so we also should walk in newness of 
life." Here the subjects of baptism are represented 
as dead and buried with Christ, and as rising up to 
lead a holy life; they have newness of life which no 
unconscious infant ever had. In I. Cor., xii. 13, we 
read. " For by one spirit we are all baptized into one 
body, whether we are Jews or Greeks, whether we 
be bond or free, and have been all made to drink 
into one spirit." Here the apostle teaches that all 
who are the proper subjects of baptism are led to 
observe the holy ordinance by the divine Spirit, and 
through the same rite they become members of 
Christ's body; and they are made to drink in one 
spirit ; that is, they become sharers in the graces of 
the great Comforter. These statements are only 
true of believers. In I. Cor. xv. 29, Paul asks : 
" Else what shall they do who are baptized for the 
dead if the dead rise not at all ? Why are they then 
baptized for the dead V 9 The apostle's idea is that by 
baptism as a figure of death, burial, and resurrec- 



84 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

tion, men profess their faith in the resurrection of 
the dead. This restricts baptism to those who have 
been made disciples. In Gal. iii. 26, 27, it is written : 
"For ye are all the children of God by faith in 
Christ Jesus ; for as many of you as have been bap- 
tized into Christ, have put on Christ." Here the 
believing children of God are spoken of, who have 
put on Christ before the world. In Colossians ii. 
11, 12, Paul says: " In whom, also, ye are circumcised 
with the circumcision made without hands, in put- 
ting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the 
circumcision of Christ ; buried with him in baptism, 
wherein also ye are risen with him, through the 
faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him 
from the dead." In these verses the apostle repre- 
sents circumcision as a figure of the work of Christ 
on the heart, in which his spirit removes the body 
of the sins of the flesh. Our circumcision now is 
not baptism, it is administered with hands, but it is a 
new heart given without human effort by the Spirit 
of Jesus. By baptism, which has no connection 
with circumcision, men rise with Christ through the 
faith of the operation of God, and their baptism is 
the immersion of believers. Peter, in his first epis- 
tle, iii. 21, says : " The like figure (the ark of Noah) 
whereunto even baptism doth also now save us, not 
the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the 
answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resur- 
rection of Jesus Christ." The answer of a good 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 85 

conscience shows that Peter's baptism was not for 
infants, who feel neither the pangs nor praises of 
conscience, nor for ungodly adults, but for faithful 
believers who have their hearts sprinkled from an 
evil conscience. 

Supposed Allusions to Baptism. — M Except a man be 
born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into 
the kingdom of God." ^Tine-tenths of the Christian 
family, living and dead, have applied these words of 
Jesus to baptism, the work of the Spirit in the 
heart, and the earthly church. The birth of water 
is the baptismal emersion, and the birth of the Spirit 
is the second birth produced by the Comforter 
through the truth ; and the subject of both births is 
not an unconscious infant, but a person capable of 
understanding the truth, and of being "reproved of 
sin " by the Holy Spirit. Paul is supposed to refer 
to baptism in I. Cor. vi. 11, when he says : " And 
such were some of you, but ye are washed, but ye 
are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the 
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God." If the 
washing of which Paul speaks was baptism, the sub- 
jects of this baptism, in some cases, had been very 
wicked men, as we learn in the ninth and tenth 
verses, and were now sanctified, and justified, and, 
consequently, intelligent believers. Paul is sup- 
posed to speak of baptism in Ephesians v. 25, 20. 27, 
where he savs : "Even as Christ also loved the 



86 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Church and gave himself for it, that he might 
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by 
the word, that he might present it to himself a 
glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any 
such thing." If this washing is water baptism, it 
means that the solemn vows, made in baptism, under 
the guidance* of God's word, to die to sin and to 
rise up to holiness of life, are largely instrumental 
in the sanctification of men. But nothing is ex- 
pressed which in the remotest degree refers to in- 
fant baptism. In Hebrews x. 21, 22, Paul is supposed 
to speak of baptism when he says : " Having a high 
priest over the house of God, let us draw near with 
a true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our 
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience (by Christ's 
blood), and our bodies washed with pure water (of 
baptism). If this washing is baptism, those who en- 
joyed it were fit persons from their intelligence and 
piety for an apostle to exhort to draw near to God 
and to hold fast the profession of their faith without 
wavering. The persons described cannot be in- 
fants. 

. Reasons from Scripture for Infant Baptism, resting 
upon portions of the Word which make no allusion to it. 
— It is strange that the most potent arguments for 
infant baptism come from statements of the Sacred 
Book which make no allusion to it ; and of the force 
of these reasons I judge, not from anything in them, 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 87 

but from the frequency and confidence with which 
men have presented them. Augustine of Hippo, 
about fifteen hundred years since, lent all the weight 
of his great name and extraordinary talents to 
establish infant baptism. He was not its father, but 
it owes more, a thousand fold, to him for its exten- 
sion than to smy other mortal. He launches forth 
the now familiar argument, " Infant baptism instead 
of circumcision,' 7 with great confidence. This old 
weapon has done immense service in the ranks of 
Traditionists. It is based, of course, upon the 
Scriptures. But what Scripture makes the declara- 
tion ? Not one. If it were said that the praises of 
the glorified took the place of Jewish circumcision it 
would be no more absurd. Circumcision repre- 
sented the cutting away of the guilty passions of the 
heart of a believer; it has no reference whatever to 
Christian baptism. If a million dollars were offered 
to the bishop of Hippo, or to any of the great cap- 
tains of the church militant who have seized his 
rusty old sword, for a text of Scripture stating that 
infant baptism had taken the place of circumcision, 
or for a legitimate inference from any portion of the 
Word of God justifying such a doctrine, the reward 
would never be given by impartial adjudicators. 
John the Baptist administered his immersion to mul- 
titudes of circumcised Jews ; Jesus had both rites; 
three thousand Israelites, who had the seal of the 
Abrahamic covenant, were baptized on the day of 



88 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Pentecost. Paul, like his Master, was both circum- 
cised and baptized. This was the law of baptism. 
It recognized no relations with circumcision. If it 
had come instead of circumcision the new rite would 
have been for the uncircurncised, and never for those 
who had the old rite, whose place it was supposed 
to take in all coming time. But until the substitu- 
tion is proved, and fifteen hundred years have failed 
to establish it, I take stronger ground than Dr. Hal- 
ley, a celebrated and very able English defender of 
infant baptism, who says, " The general opinion, that 
baptism is substituted for circumcision, as a kind of 
hereditary seal of the covenant of grace, appears to 
be ill-sustained by Scriptural evidence, and to be 
exposed to some very serious, if not absolutely fatal, 
objections ;" and again, " I have, and I ought to con- 
fess it candidly, some serious objections to the 
acknowledgment of baptism as the substitute for 
circumcision." The Sacraments, pp. 34, 47, London, 
1855. These are the utterances of one of the fore- 
most enemies, in talent and fervor, of believer's 
immerson, that ever lived, and as he stands alone 
among his brethren, he speaks with unusual mod- 
esty. I take more decided ground than this distin- 
guished writer, and I affirm that a more baseless 
assertion never was made on earth than the declara- 
tion that baptism came instead of circumcision. 

In Matthew xix. 13, 14, 15, we find another Scrip- 
ture often used to sustain infant baptism. It is there 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 89 

written, "There were then brought unto him little 
children that he should put his hands on them and 
pray; and the disciples rebuked them; but Jesus 
said, c Suffer little children and forbid them not to 
come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven 7 ; 
and he laid his hands on them." The advocates of 
infant baptism regard the Saviour's kindness to the 
children, and his saying " of such is the kingdom of 
heaven" as unquestionable testimonies that little 
children should be baptized. It is worthy of notice 
that the Saviour does not say of the little children, 
" Of them is the kingdom of heaven." If He had, the 
doom of the adult unsaved world would have been 
sealed ; only children could have entered the king- 
dom of heaven. The meaning of the Saviour's dec- 
laration can be easily seen by comparing it with his 
statement in Matthew xviii. 3, 4, " Verily I say unto 
you, except ye be converted, and become as little 
children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of 
heaven. Whosoever, therefore, shall humble him- 
self as this little child [there was a child in the midst 
of them] the same is greatest in the kingdom of 
heaven." What is needed to enter the Saviour's 
kingdom is not the weeks or the years of a little 
child, not its age, but its lowliness; in distrusting 
itself and in trusting a dear mother ; in feeling that 
it is not strong, and in keeping near its loving pro- 
tector; and in being speedily grieved by its own 
faults, and seeking forgiveness. This is exactly the 



90 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Saviour's thought when He says, "of such is the 
kingdom of heaven," not of them, but of those like 
them in humility, of such persons as children in their 
best qualities, Jerome, in the fourth century, beau- 
tifully expresses the Saviour's meaning, in his com- 
mentary on his own Vulgate, at Matt. xix. 14, " Sig- 
nificantly," the monk writes, " Jesus said, of such, not 
of them, to show that not age, but morals should rule, 
and that to those who had similar innocence and sim- 
plicity a reward was promised." This is the Saviour's 
idea exactly. The promise is not to children, but to 
such as children — those who have the innocence, 
simplicity, and confiding faith of children — and con- 
sequently, it has nothing to do with infant baptism, 
or with adult immersion. The Saviour does not say, 
" can any man forbid water that these dear children 
should not be baptized?" "They brought them to 
him that he should put his hands on them and 
pray," "and he laid his hands on them, and departed 
thence ; " and he neither baptized them, nor repre- 
sented them as subjects of baptism. He blessed 
them as near relatives, distinguished servants of 
God, and aged persons, have been accustomed to 
do in all countries. And one would think, from the 
ideas of our Pedobaptist brethren, that His disciples 
would instantly have recognized the propriety of 
giving the little children the new supposed seal 
of the covenant by plunging them in water; but 
they knew nothing of the baptism of children, Jews 



INFANT BAPTISM TJNSCRIPTURAL. 91 

though all of them were; and they rebuked the 
parents for bringing them to Jesus, and only per- 
mitted them to approach Him, when He said, " Suffer 
little children, and forbid them not to come unto me." 
Nothing in this record favors infant baptism. 

In I. Cor. vii. 12, 13, 14, there is another Scripture 
frequently used to defend the baptism of children. 
It reads, " If any brother hath a wife that believeth 
not (an idolatress probably, or it might be a Jewess), 
and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put 
her away. And the woman who hath a husband that 
believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, 
let her not leave him; for the unbelieving husband 
is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is 
sanctified by the husband ; else were your children 
unclean but now are they holy." It is argued that 
since the children are holy, therefore, they ought to 
be baptized. The holiness of the unbelieving wife 
and husband of which Paul speaks is a very curious 
quality: both parties probably served idols at Cor- 
inth; both parties certainly rejected Jesus, and yet 
the unbelieving husband and wife were " sanctified," 
made holy, by their companions. This was the legal 
holiness of the Jews of which Paul was speaking. 
In Acts x. 28, Peter says, " Ye know how that it is an 
unlawful thing for a man that is a Jew to keep com- 
pany, or come unto one of another nation ; but God 
hath showed me that I should not call any man com- 
mon or unclean." This doctine applied to married 



92 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

relationships with more stringency than to any kind 
of intercourse between Jews and idolaters. The 
apostle, to prevent this custom from separating hus- 
bands and wives, writes that, where either compan- 
ion is a Christian united to an unbeliever, there shall 
be no divorce on that account, that the union is holy, 
that is, lawful, and so are the children. Some com- 
mentators state that the Hebrew equivalent of the 
Greek word, rendered holy, was used to designate a 
lawful marriage among the Jews, and that the sanc- 
tification of the husband simply means that his mar- 
riage was legal ; and so with the sanctification of the 
wife, and hence the children were holy or legal. 
And if they separated, it would be stripping their 
wedded relations of legal sanctions, and their chil- 
dren of a virtuous birth. That the holiness of such 
children is not from regeneration's unquestionable, 
for the adjective describing it is from the same word 
as the verb which sanctifies the unbelieving husband 
and wife, and leaves them unholy in heart still. If 
the holiness of children entitles them to baptism, it 
gives an equal claim to that holy ordinance to the 
idol-worshipping ivife of a godly husband, or to the 
Jewish Christ-rejecting husband of a saintly wife. A 
more preposterous claim to baptism was never urged 
by reasonable men than the supposed title of these 
children. The apostle's subject is not baptism for 
either infants or adults, but the enduring character 
of marriage ties between believers and unbelievers, 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 93 

and the good name of the children of such mar- 
riages. 

Paul writes, "There is one body, and one spirit, 
even as ye are called in one hope of your calling : 
one Lord, one faith, one baptism," Eph. iv. 4, 5 
This one baptism is the believer's ; there is no other 
in the Saviour's commission, nor in any of the bap- 
tisms recorded in the New Testament. Neither 
could there be another, unless the spirit of inspira- 
tion was mistaken when he prompted Paul to write, 
" One Lord, one faith, one baptism." Even the 
stern Eeformer of Geneva, one of the greatest ene- 
mies the Anabaptists ever had, is compelled to admit 
that there is no record of infant baptism among the 
actions of the apostles. His words are, " Nor is 
there much plausibility in the objection that it is 
nowhere stated that even a single infant was bap- 
tized by the hands of the apostles. For though no 
such circumstance is expressly mentioned by the evan- 
gelist, yet on the other hand, as they are never exclu- 
ded, when mention happens to be made of the bap- 
tism of any family, who can rationally conclude from 
this, that they were not baptized?" Calvin admits 
that Luke, the evangelist, who wrote the book of Acts, 
does not expressly mention such a tiling. There was 
no need to exclude the children where a family bap- 
tism was recorded, nor their playthings, for apostolic 
baptism, like the commission, was believer's immer- 
sion. There is not in the Sacred Volume a single 



94 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

leaf, or the smallest part of a leaf, under which the 
baptism of an unconscious infant can huddle, unless 
it can find shelter under that saying of Peter, in his 
first Epistle, ii. 13, " Submit yourselves to every ordi- 
nance of man for the Lord's sake.' 7 

This is the Testimony of the First Two Centuries of 
Christianity. Our brethren have hailed the state- 
ment of Dean Stanley with great admiration, which 
can be found in The Nineteenth Century for October, 
1879, p. 39. " In the Apostolic Age, and in the three 
centuries which followed, it is evident that, as a gen- 
eral rule, those who came to baptism came in full age ; 
we find a few cases of the baptism of children ; in 
the third century we find one case of the baptism 
of infants." The Dean here makes a distinction 
between children and infants. And in the third cen- 
tury he first finds infant baptism. The Dean of West- 
minster is strictly correct — there is not a single in- 
stance of the baptism of an unconscious infant in the 
first two centuries. The Christian literature of that 
period has been searched by men whose scholarship 
and patristic information far surpass those of Dean 
Stanley, and they have never pretended that these 
centuries furnish any evidence of infant baptism. 
If Tertullian's tract, De Baptismo, was written four 
or five years before the end of the second century, 
we have evidence that the baptism of children, not 
infants, was discussed for the first time in Christian 
literature, and denounced by Tertullian in his ortho- 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 95 

dox days. We feel no special gratitude to Dean 
Stanley for his "concession." He could not have 
done otherwise with the facts before him, if he made 
any statement on the subject. Baptism in the East 
was first given to adults, then to youths, then to 
children of six or seven, and lastly, to unconscious 
infants. Neander, vol. i. 311, Boston Ed., says: 
" Baptism, at first, was administered only to adults, 
as men were accustomed to conceive baptism and 
faith as strictly connected. We have all reason for 
not deriving infant baptism from apostolic institu- 
tion." During the first two Christian ages the mod- 
ern substitute for the believer's baptism of Christ 
was not in existence. The scholarly Bingham takes 
two men of remarkable learning, Salmasius and Sui- 
cerus, to task, for saying that " For the first two 
ages, no one received baptism who was not first 
instructed in the faith and doctrine of Christ, so as 
to be able to answer for himself that he believed, 
because of those words, 'He that believeth and is 
baptized. ' " Book xi. chap. 4, sec. 5. And then he 
adduces several fathers who speak for the necessity 
of baptism, and he infers that they must have 
included infants in this needful baptism ; but he is 
careful to perform no impossibility, by bringing for- 
ward a case of infant baptism, or a positive account 
of the rite. 

Tertullian says that "those who desire to dip them- 
selves holily in the water, must prepare themselves 



96 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

for it by fastings, by watchings, by prayers, and by 
sincere repentance.'' Justin Martyr says, " As many 
as are persuaded and believe that the things which we 
teach and declare are true, and promise that they are 
determined to live accordingly, are taught to pray to 
God, and to beseech Sim with fasting to grant them 
remission for their past sins, while we also pray and 
fast with them. We then lead them to a place where 
there is water," &c, Patrologia Grseca, vol. vi. 240, 
Migne, Parisiis. These were the subjects of baptism 
in the second century, according to the two most 
distinguished Christians of that period. The disci- 
ples of the first two centuries were devotedly at- 
tached to the Scriptures, and lived near the days of 
the apostles ; and, like our honored denomination, 
they saw only the baptism of believer's immersion 
in the Word of God. 

The Third and Fourth Centuries Knew Extremely 
Little of Infant Baptism, Dean Stanley speaks of one 
case in the third century. He refers, no doubt, to the 
Council of Carthage, held about A. D. 256. Fidus, an 
unknown country bishop, wrote to Cyprian, bishop of 
Carthage, to inquire at what period an infant might be 
baptized. Fidus supposed that it might receive the 
rite as early as the eighth day, but he needed infor- 
mation on the novel question, and Cyprian, a lead- 
ing bishop in Africa and among Christians every- 
where, was ignorant. A council of sixty-six bishops 
decided the point, and decreed that one might be 



infant baptism: unscriptural. 97 

baptized as soon as it was born. One of their rea- 
sons for the decision was that baptism took away the 
heavier sins of persons of years, and it could more 
easily remove the guilt of infants ; and another, that 
the prophet, Elisha, placed his body upon the dead 
child which lie restored, his mouth to its mouth, his 
eyes to its eyes, and his hands to its hands, the spir- 
itual sense of which was, that infants are equal to 
men, and consequently should have their baptism. 
This is the first case of infant baptism in the records 
of Christianity. The ignorance of Fidus and Cyprian 
about the laws of the rite, and the letter of the 
bishop, if it is genuine, show that infant baptism was 
a novelty. The obscure council of Carthage, of 
A. D. 256, gave infant baptism no standing beyond 
the ignorant Eoman colonists of North Africa. Nor 
have we any reason to suppose that even among 
them, either the authority of Cyprian's Council, or 
any other instrumentality, gave infant baptism pop- 
ularity for a long period after the meeting of the 
sixty-sis bishops. The great Augustine, who was 
born in A. D. 354, in North Africa, and whose 
mother, Monica, was an eminent Christian lady, was 
not baptized till he was thirty-three years of age. 
He received the ordinance from St. Ambrose, who 
was not baptized until after his election to the See 
of Milan. There is no positive account of the bap- 
tism of unconscious infants in the third century, 
except the record preserved by Cyprian. Clemens 

7 



98 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Alexandrinus and Origen treat of the baptism of 
children, not infants. 

In the fourth century, the greatest men in the 
Christian world reached adult years without baptism. 
We have already named two of them, Augustine and 
Ambrose, and of the latter it is said that his family 
were all Christians. In A. D. 381, Nectarius was 
elected archbishop of Constantinople, and though, 
according to Sozomen, "he was of advanced age," 
and that it was by u the will of God that so mild and 
virtuous and exemplary a man was elevated to the 
priesthood," he had not been baptized when chosen 
to the greatest ecclesiastical dignity in the world. 
Gregory Nazianzen, who was born while his father 
was bishop of Nazianzum, in Cappadocia, was bap- 
tized in his thirtieth year, and he was archbishop of 
the great church of St. Sophia. The learned and 
illustrious John Chrysostom, whose parents were 
both Christians, was baptized at twenty-eight, and 
he lived to preside over the church of the chief city 
of the Christian world. Basil the Great, one of the 
most distinguished prelates in Christendom, whose 
ancestors were Christians for several generations, 
was baptized in his twenty-eighth year, and he died 
A. D. 379. Jerome, the learned translator of the 
Old Testament, and reviser of the New, and the use- 
ful commentator, was born of Christian parents 
A. D. 331, and about A. D. 366 he was baptized. 
The emperor, Theodosius the Great, after subduing 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 00 

enemies to his throne on the banks of the Danube, 
proceeded to Thessalonica, where he was baptized, 
A. D. 380, and Sozomen tells us that " his parents 
were Christians, and they were attached to the Ni- 
cene doctrines." The bishops just noticed were not 
only the leaders of the Christian world in their day, 
but they stand unsurpassed in the ecclesiastical lit- 
erature of our times. 

The baptism of the fourth century required the 
candidates to be catechized before they received the 
ordinance, and to profess faith in Jesus. Ambrose, 
addressing those about to be baptized, says, "Thou 
wast asked, 'Dost thou believe in God, the omnipo- 
tent Father, and thou saidst, ' I believe/ and thou 
wast immersed, that is, thou wast buried. Again, 
thou wast asked, ' Dost thou believe in our Lord 
Jesus Christ and in His Cross 1 ? And thou saidst, ' I 
believe;' and thou wast immersed, and therefore, 
thou wast buried with Christ. * * A third time, 
thou wast asked, ' Dost thou believe in the Holy 
Spirit V And thou saidst, 'I believe ;' and a third 
time thou wast immersed," Patrol. Lat. xvi. p. 448, 
Migne, Parisiis. With a variety of ceremonies and 
professions, the faith demanded by Ambrose was 
required everywhere at the baptisms of the fourth 
century. And masses of Christians were not bap- 
tized at all. They were waiting until death was not 
far distant, that all their sins might be washed out 
at once. Xeander, speaking of this century, says, 



100 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

"Infant baptism, though acknowledged to be neces- 
sary, yet entered so rarely and with so much diffi- 
culty into the church life during the first part of this 
period." " Hence many put off baptism until they 
were reminded by mortal sickness, or some other 
sudden danger of approaching death. Hence it 
was, that in times of public calamity, in earthquakes, 
in the dangers of war, multitudes hurried to baptism, 
and the numbers of the existing clergy scarcely sufficed 
for the wants of all." Church History, ii. 319-20, Bos- 
ton. The necessity, which in some cases was recog- 
nized, for the baptism of infants, was the new-born 
delusion that baptism would wash out Adam's sin ; 
but even in the limited number of cases where this 
doctrine was accepted, it was only thought of in con- 
nection with the death of a child. 

The clergy of the fourth century were continually 
appealing to their congregations to be baptized ; 
they exhorted them, and entreated them, and showed 
them the dangers of deferring so blessed a rite ; and 
they felt a deep concern for multitudes of persons 
whose parents never thought of baptizing them, and 
who were not anxious to put on Christ by a public 
baptism until they neared the end of life's journey. 
It may be safely asserted that outside of North Af- 
rica the baptisms of unconscious infants in the fourth 
century were so few, that they scarcely deserve to 
be named. What a commentary on the commission 
of Christ to his apostles ! 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 101 

In the very end of the fourth, and for thirty years 
in the fifth century, Augustine, bishop of Hippo, in 
North Africa, advocated infant baptism incessantly, 
and forged or furbished most of the weapons by 
which it is defended in our own times ; his great 
mind, burning zeal and boundless influence, carried 
infant baptism over Christendom in the fifth century 
— but while it became common in that age, there is 
no reason to believe that it was generally observed ; 
and Dean Stanley is greatly mistaken in his declara- 
tion that " after the fifth century the whole Christ- 
ian world * * have baptized children." — The Nine- 
teenth Century, p. 39, October, 1879. For centuries 
after the fifth, the regular baptisms of the orthodox 
church in some of the great centres of the Christian 
world were the baptisms of catechized persons who 
professed their own faith, not adults, but minors. 
— Kobinson's History of Baptism, p. 106, Nashville. 

Infant Baptism in All Ages has Required Faith 
Before it was Administered, and so far it Testifies 
in Favor of the Commission. Augustine himself re- 
quired faith before he baptized infants ; he asked, 
" Doth this child believe in God u ? Doth he turn to 
God ! 7 ' and he declares expressly in another place 
that the sponsors answered for them ; Patrol. Lat. 
Tom. xxxiii. 363 ; Parisiis. Without commenting on 
the person who has the faith, Augustine, the grand 
propagator of infant baptism demanded it as a pre- 



102 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

requisite to that rite. Martin Luther, in his Smaller 
Catechism p. 58, IN". Y., 1867, says, " I promised God 
in holy baptism that I would renounce the devil 
and all his works and ways, and believe in God, 
the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I made this 
promise in holy baptism, through my sponsors." 
The Catechism of the Council of Trent, one of the 
highest authorities in the Catholic Church, says: 
"It is not lawful to doubt but that children re- 
ceive the sacraments of faith when they are bap- 
tized, not because they believe with the assent of 
their minds, but because of the faith of their parents, 
if they are believers ; but if not, to use the words 
of Augustine, they are fortified by the faith of the 
whole body of saints.'' — Question 33, Pars II, p. 144, 
Lipsiae, 1865. The Catholic Church demands faith 
from the child through sponsors before she baptizes 
it. In the Greek Church in Russia and elsewhere, 
before baptism the priest asks the infant, " ' Dost 
thou believe in Christ?' and the sponsor answers, 
c I believe in Him as King and God,' and then he 
repeats the Creed." — King's Rites and Ceremonies of 
the Greek Church in Russia, p. 161, London. The 
Russian, and all the Eastern Churches demand faith 
in baptism. So do the Episcopal Churches in Eng- 
land and America. The common Catechism of both 
bodies has this question and answer : " What is re- 
quired of persons to be baptized? Repentance 
whereby they forsake sin ; and faith whereby they 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 103 

steadfastly believe the promises of God made to 
them in that sacrament." These Churches demand 
repentance and faith for their baptism, and both are 
promised by sponsors. 

Calvin seemingly thinks that infants have some 
kind of faith. He says, " As the Lord therefore will 
illuminate them (infants) with the full splendor of 
His countenance in heaven, why may He not also, if 
such be His pleasure, irradiate them with some faint 
rays of it in the present life % Not that I would 
hastily affirm them to be endued with the same faith 
which we experienced in ourselves, or at all to pos- 
sess a similar knowledge, which I would prefer leav- 
ing in suspense."— Institutes, vol. ii., lib. iv., cap. 19. 
His idea is, probably, that infants have faith in the 
germ. The Westminster Confession of Faith, speak- 
ing for British and American Presbyterians, makes 
the faith of the parents, or of one parent, a prerequi- 
site to baptism. u Baptism," it says, " is not to be 
administered to any that are out of the visible 
church, and so strangers from the covenant of prom- 
ise, till they profess their faith in Christ, and obe- 
dience to him ; but infants descending from parents, 
either both, or but one of them, professing faith in 
Christ and obedience to Him, are, in that respect, 
within the Covenant, and are to be baptized." Ques- 
tion 1G6, Larger Catechism. Here, again, baptism is 
prohibited without faith. 

In Robinson's History of Baptism, p. 681, Nashville, 
here is an account of an English Congregational 



104 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

baptism, at which the minister stated that " not only 
those that do actually profess faith in, and obedi- 
ence unto Christ, but also the infants of one or both 
believing parents, were to be baptized." This is 
the ground of the British Congregationalists now ; 
and it is no doubt the creed, on this question, of 
their brethren in the United States. 

When John Wesley visited this country, in 1738, 
he adhered strictly to the baptism of the Episcopal 
Church, as the following quotations from his journal 
will show : " Saturday, February 21. — Mary Welsh, 
aged eleven days, was baptized, according to the 
custom of the first church, and the rule of the 
church of England, by immersion ; the child was ill 
then, but recovered from that hour." " Wednesday, 
May 5th.— I was asked to baptise a child of Mr. 
Parker, second bailiff of Savannah, but Mrs. Parker 
told me, i Neither Mr. Parker nor I will consent to 
its being dipped. 7 I answered, l If you certify that 
your child is weak, it will suffice, the Eubric says, to 
pour water upon it.' She replied, ' Nay the child is 
not weak, but I am resolved it shall not be dipped.' 
This argument I could not confute. So I went home 
and the child was baptized by another person." — ■ 
Wesley' 's Worts 1. 130-134, Philadelphia, 1826. In the 
service for the baptism of infants in the Church of 
England, the minister addresses the godfathers and 
godmothers, saying, among other things, " Dost thou 
believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of 



INFANT BAPTISM UNSCRIPTURAL. 105 

heaven and earth? And in Jesus Christ, His o*nly 
begotten son, oivr Lord ? * * * And dost thon 
believe in the Holy Ghost? * * * This is from 
the service for the private baptism of children in 
houses, the one probably used by Mr. Wesley when 
Mary Welsh was immersed. Faith at this time was 
a prerequisite to baptism with Mr. Wesley. 

Throughout Christendom there has been a general 
conviction that faith was indispensible to baptism. 
Among those who have practiced infant baptism, faith 
has been sternly demanded, as a prerequisite to the im- 
mersion or sprinkling of a child, from the very origin 
of that human rite. The Baptists have never ex- 
hibited greater urgency for faith, as a condition 
without which baptism could not be conferred, than 
Pedobaptists. Dr. Halley, an English Congrega- 
tionalist, had his orthodoxy questioned by his own 
brethren, and his opinions rejected, by delivering 
and publishing, about thirty years ago, lectures in 
which he tried to prove that the commission re- 
quired the apostles to teach all nations and baptize 
all nations; that faith had nothing to do with baptism; 
that the command to baptize might have preceded 
the order to teach without any impropriety. Prob- 
ably Dr. Halley was the only man who ever seriously 
entertained such a doctrine. The whole Christian 
world, except Br. Halley and men of QuaJcer opinions, 
has ever held, and holds still, that the Baptist principle, 
which demands faith as a prerequisite to the initial 
ordinance of the gospel, is a Scriptural doctrine. 



106 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Pedobaptists secure this faith in a way somewhat 
different from Baptists. We hold that we must not 
borrow the loan of another's faith in order to be 
baptized — that the candidate must have it himself. 
We have heard of the formation of an insurance 
company, which required a certain amount of capi- 
tal ; the requisite sum was borrowed, to show the 
State examiner when he inspected its assets, and 
then it was returned. But men of honor have 
never approved of the integrity of borrowed bonds, 
or funds for such a purpose; and we are afraid that 
borrowed faith, in order to be baptized, however 
good the intention may be, is an attempted imposi- 
tion upon man's Divine Friend. The Scriptures 
know nothing of loaned faith. A personal faith is a 
prerequisite to baptism. 

The believer's baptism of the first four centuries, 
and of multitudes for centuries later, has been 
completely set aside by the baptism of infants in all 
Christian communities, except Baptist Churches. 
It is a mournful fact that this grand ordinance of 
the Eedeemer, speaking of our death to sin, our 
union with Christ in the merits of His death, our 
rising from the watery grave to lead a holy life, and 
our resurrection from the dead, should be in its mode 
and subjects as completely removed from a large 
part of Christendom, as if it had never existed. 
My text is strikingly applicable to this usurping 
ceremony and its administrators. "Thus have ye 



INFANT BAPTISM TJNSCRIPTURAL. 107 

made the commandment of God of none effect by 
your tradition." 

The Saviour has uttered words that inspire us 
with great hope for our dear brethren of the Evan- 
gelical churches of our country and of other lands. 
He says, Matt, xv., " Every plant which ray heavenly 
Father hath not planted shall be rooted up." This 
is surely one of the plants to which the Saviour's 
words may be fitly applied. The Kev. John Robin- 
son, the father of New England Congregationalism, 
whose flock sent the colony which came by the cel- 
ebrated Mayflower, while earnestly defending the 
Scriptural authority of infant baptism, says : "We 
grant that the Scriptures nowhere say, in express 
terms, ' baptize infants,' or that infants were bap- 
tized."— Works of Robinson, I. 416, London, 1851. 
If there is no such command in the Scriptures in 
express terms, nor any such practice, we can readily 
see, notwithstanding good John Robinson's strong 
reasons, that infant baptism is not Scriptural, and 
that it is one of the plants which must be rooted up 
because our heavenly Father did not plant it. Kay, 
He is pulling it up by the roots very actively just 
now. The Evangelical churches of our country are 
evidently drawing nearer the Saviour's ways and 
spirit, and iti nothing is this more apparent than in 
the disuse of infant sprinkling in Pedobaptist 
churches. Twenty years ago, a reliable authority 
quoted by Professor Curtis says, " In one of the 



108 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

oldest (Congregational) churches in this State, there 
had not been, a few years since, an instance of in- 
fant baptism for seven preceding years. Last year 
there were seventy Congregational Churches in New 
Hampshire that reported no infant baptisms. This 
year ninety-six churches reported none. If this in- 
difference continues, the ordinance will become ex- 
tinct in the Congregational Churches." Dr. Curtis 
calculated that less than a third of the Presbyterian 
children born in a year, at the time he published his 
work, were baptized, whereas a century ago they 
were all baptized ; and that the infant rite was far 
less practiced among the Methodists. — Progress of 
Baptist Principles, pp. 132-136, Boston. There is every 
reason to believe that infant baptism is declining 
still, and will continue to be observed less and less, 
until this plant, which our heavenly Father hath not 
planted, disappears altogether, and the servants of 
Jehovah cease forever to make the commandment 
of God of no effect by their tradition, and unite in 
receiving one Lord, one faith, and one baptism. 



WHY THE BAPTISTS DO XOT BAPTIZE 
INFANTS. 



BY EEV. W. E. HATCHER, D.D., RICHMOND, VA. 



As a fact, Baptists do not baptize their infants. If 
there be any benefits springing from Infant Baptism, 
the children of Baptists miss them. If Infant Bap- 
tism is necessary to the salvation of children, then 
the children of Baptists are lost. 

The motive of the Baptists in refusing baptism to 
children is no secret. They hardly consider it 
necessary to say that it is from no want of kindness 
or religious solicitude for their children. They ex- 
pect many things to be said against them, and are 
ready to bear them, but can not believe that their 
worst enemies will seriously deny that they love their 
children and are concerned for their highest relig- 
ious safety. 

Nor does their refusal arise from an unwillingness 
to consecrate their children to the Lord. This, every 
sincere and intelligent Baptist does. Nor is it from 
any desire to be eccentric or singular ; but a deep 
conviction of duty which they cannot but regard. 

The one sufficient reason the Baptists have for reject- 
ing Infant Baptist is, that the Bible does not teach it. 
^Yith some this is nothing. They follow priests, 



110 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

creeds and churches. But to the Baptists, the Bible 
is the end of controversy. They confess its author- 
ity as supreme, and accept nothing as religious duty 
except that which it teaches. They do not find that 
it teaches Infant Baptism. But some say that the 
Bible does teach it. It is there! Well, where? 
Dreamy fancies that it is taught somewhere in the 
Word of God are worth nothing. Give the chapter 
and the verse where, by law or example, it is taught. 
If your child's salvation depended on a passage in 
the Scriptures that taught this doctrine, which would 
you select % 

True, certain passages or incidents in the Bible are 
presented in support of Infant Baptism, but even 
the friends of the doctrine differ widely concerning 
them. Without attempting to notice all these texts, 
I will, as a matter of justice, select for notice those 
which are considered the strongest. Perhaps the 
most popular proof passage is found in Mark x. 14- 
16. This to many is a tower of strength — a refuge 
in weakness, and quoted on all occasions. What are 
the facts % Little children are brought to the Sav- 
iour and he takes them in his arms and blesses them. 
The surprise and displeasure of the disciples at the 
presentation of these children to Christ plainly indi- 
cated that the practice of Infant Baptism was not 
known to them. It was certainly a capital oppor- 
tunity for instituting such an ordinance and explain- 
ing its object; but nothing of the kind was done. 



WHY WE DO NOT BAPTIZE INFANTS. Ill 

The silence of Jesus on the subject is itself a signi- 
ficant argument against it. The fact that he said 
nothing about Infant Baptism, and did something 
quite different from it, turns this passage into a 
strong proof-text against the practice. 

But there are the Household Baptisms. It is 
claimed that if whole families were baptized, there 
must have been children among them. First in the 
list is the family of Crispus. Paul baptized that house- 
hold. It is enough to say that it is expressly declared 
that Crispus " believed in the Lord with all his house." 
Acts xviii. 8. Next is the house of Stephanas, 1 Cor. i. 
13. Here Paul simply speaks of it as the baptism of 
a household. Must there not have been infants ? 
Not unless it can be shown that there are no house- 
holds without infants. But observe that in 1 Cor. 
xvi. 15, Paul, in alluding to this family, calls them 
" the first fruits of Achaia," and says they " addicted 
themselves to the ministry of the saints." Mac- 
knight is candid enough to admit that there could 
have been no infants in the house of Stephanas. 

Next is the household of the Philippian jailer. Acts 
xvi. 29-34. In reading the account, you observe that 
they spake the word of the Lord to all that were in 
the house of the jailer — that the jailer rejoiced, be- 
lieving in God icith all his house." That is unanswer- 
ably plain. Last in the list is the house of Lydia. 
Acts xvi. 14, 15-40. Before an argument in favor of 
Infant Baptism can be wrung from this case, several 



112 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

impossible propositions must be established : 1. That 
Lydia was married. 2. That she had children. 3. 
That any of these children were at that time infants. 
4. That these infants were baptized. 5. That the 
term brethren in verse 40 is used independently of 
these children. 

There is also the argument from circumcision. It 
is claimed that Infant Baptism is the substitute for 
circumcision. That such is the case is nowhere 
intimated in the Word of God. The Jews that had 
been circumcised, when converted to Christ were 
baptized. Timothy was circumcised after he had 
been baptized. If baptism is the substitute for 
circumcision, where is the fact stated ? 

Some who practice Infant Baptism do not claim 
clear Bible authority for it. They put it on the 
ground that it is a " form of consecration "— " a beau- 
tiful ceremony " — " may do some good n and " can do 
no harm." That there is any wrong or injury in the 
simple act of sprinkling a child with water and pray- 
ing for its salvation, no one would be so foolish as to 
assert. But when this act is performed on the plea 
that it is commanded by the word of God, it becomes 
an evil. It is to claim scriptural authority for what 
is not taught in the word of God. Besides, the ob- 
servance of this practice is a practical abolition of 
believer's baptism, which is clearly required by the 
law of Christ. 

It is an injury to the child. It infringes his right 
of choice in the matter of baptism. It confuses his 



WHY WE DO NOT BAPTIZE INFANTS. 113 

mind in regard to his relation to the Church. It 
leaves him in doubt as to his regeneration. It is cal- 
culated to foster in his mind false religious hopes. 

It is an injury to the Church. The scriptural idea 
of a Church is that of a body of baptized believers. 
Only those who have been pardoned and regenerated 
are entitled to membership. Upon the preservation 
of this idea of a spiritual membership is dependent 
the purity of the churches. This idea is assailed by 
Infant Baptism, and the universal triumph of that 
doctrine would be the introduction of all classes of 
persons within the ranks of some external church ► 
The truth of this statement is abundantly proved by 
the condition of the Lutheran Church in Germany, 
and that of the Established Church of England. 

If it be true that Infant Baptism is not taught in 
the word of God — that it is injurious to those who 
are its subjects, and unfriendly to the New Testament 
idea of a Church, then the Baptists are amply justi- 
fied in rejecting it. 



BAPTISMAL EEGEHEKATION. 



BY REV. CHARLES H. SPURGEON, LONDON, ENGLAND, 



"And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be 
damned."— Mark xvi. 15, 16. 

In the preceding verse our Lord Jesus Christ gives 
us some little insight into the natural character of 
the apostles whom he selected to be the first minis- 
ters of the Word. They were evidently men of like 
passions with us, and needed to be rebuked even as 
we do. On the occasion when our Lord sent forth 
the eleven to preach the gospel to every creature, 
he " appeared unto them as they sat at meat, and 
upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of 
heart, because they believed not them which had 
seen him after he was risen ; ** from which we may 
surely gather, that, to preach the Word, the Lord 
was pleased to choose imperfect men; men, too, who 
of themselves were very weak in the grace of faith, 
in which it was most important that they should 
excel. Faith is the conquering grace, and is of all 
things the main requisite in the preacher of the 
Word ; and yet the honored men who were chosen 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 115 

to be the leaders of the divine crusade needed a 
rebuke concerning their unbelief. Why was this? 
Why, my brethren, because the Lord has ordained 
evermore that we should have this treasure in earthen 
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of 
God, and not of us. If you should find a perfect 
minister, then might the praise and honor of his use- 
fulness accrue to man ; but God is frequently pleased 
to select for eminent usefulness men evidently hon- 
est and sincere, but who have some manifest infirm- 
ity by which all the glory is cast off from them and 
laid upon himself, and upon himself alone. Let it 
never be supposed that we who are God's ministers 
either excuse our faults or pretend to perfection. 
We labor to walk in holiness, but we cannot claim to 
be all that we wish to be. We do not base the 
claims of God's truth upon the spotlessness of our 
characters, but upon the fact that it comes from him. 
You have believed in spite of our infirmities, and not 
because of our virtues. If, indeed, you had believed 
our word because of our supposed perfection, your 
faith would stand in the excellency of man and not 
in the power of God. We come unto you often with 
much trembling, sorrowing over our follies and 
weaknesses ; but we deliver to you God's Word as 
God's Word, and we beseech you to receive it, not 
as coming from us, poor, sinful mortals, but as pro- 
ceeding from the eternal and thrice-holy God ; and if 
you so receive it, and by its own vital force are 



116 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

moved and stirred up towards God and his ways, 
then is the work of the Word sure work, which it 
could not and would not be if it rested in any way 
upon man. 

Our Lord having thus given us an insight into the 
character of the persons whom he has chosen to 
proclaim his truth, then goes on to deliver to the 
chosen champions their commission for the holy war. 
I pray you mark the words with solemn care. He 
sums up in a few words the whole of their work, 
and at the same time foretells the result of it, telling 
them that some would doubtless believe and so be 
saved, and some on the other hand would not be- 
lieve and would most certainly, therefore, be damned ; 
that is, condemned forever to the penalties of God's 
wrath. The lines containing the commission of our 
ascended Lord are certainly of the utmost import- 
ance, and demand devout attention and implicit 
obedience, not only from all who aspire to the work 
of the ministry, but also from all who hear the mes- 
sage of mercy. A clear understanding of these 
words is absolutely necessary to our success in the 
Master's work ; for if we do not understand the com- 
mission, it is not at all likely that we shall discharge 
it aright. To alter these words were more than im- 
pertinence : it would involve the crime of treason 
against the authority of Christ and the best interests 
of the souls of men. Oh for grace to be very jeal- 
ous here ! 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 117 

Wherever the apostles went they met with obsta- 
cles to the preaching of the gospel, and the more 
open and effectual was the door of utterance, the 
more numerous were the adversaries. These brave 
men so wielded the sword of the Spirit as to put to 
flight all their foes ; and this they did, not by craft 
and guile, but by making a direct cut at the error 
which impeded them. Never did they dream for a 
moment of adapting the gospel to the unhallowed 
tastes or prejudices of the people, but at once 
directly and boldly they brought down with both 
their hands the mighty sword of the Spirit upon 
the crown of the opposing error. This morning, 
in the name of the Lord of Hosts, my helper and 
defence, I shall attempt to do the same ; and if I 
should provoke some hostility — if I should, through 
speaking what I believe to be the truth, lose the 
friendship of some and stir up the enmity of more — 
I cannot help it. The burden of the Lord is upon 
me, and I must deliver my soul. I have been loth 
enough to undertake the work, but I am forced to it 
by an awful and overwhelming sense of solemn duty. 
As I am soon to appear before my Master's bar, I 
will this day, if ever in my life, bear my testimony 
for truth, and run all risks. I am content to be cast 
out as evil if it must be so ; but I cannot, I dare not, 
hold my peace. The Lord knoweth I have nothing 
in my heart but the purest love to the souls of those 
whom I feel imperatively called to rebuke sternly in 



118 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the Lord's name. Among my hearers and readers, 
a considerable number will censure if not condemn 
me ; but I cannot help it. If I forfeit your love for 
truth's sake I am grieved for you; but I cannot, 
I dare not, do otherwise. It is as much as my soul 
is worth to hold my peace any longer ; and, whether 
you approve or not, I must speak out. Did I ever 
court your approbation I It is sweet to every one 
to be applauded ; but if for the sake of the comforts 
of respectability and the smiles of men any Christian 
minister shall keep back a part of his testimony, his 
Master at the last shall require it at his hands. This 
day, standing in the immediate presence of God, I 
shall speak honestly what I feel, as the Holy Spirit 
shall enable me ; and I shall leave the matter with 
you to judge concerning it, as you will answer for 
that judgment at the last, great day. 

I find that the great error which we have to con- 
tend with throughout England (and it is growing 
more and more), is one in direct opposition to my text, 
well known to you as the doctrine of baptismal regen- 
eration. We will confront this dogma with the asser- 
tion that baptism without faith saves no one. The text 
says, "He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
saved;" but whether a man be baptized or no, it 
asserts that "he that believeth not shall be damned:" 
so that baptism does not save the unbeliever ; nay, it 
does not in any degree exempt him from the common 
doom of all the ungodly. He may have baptism, or 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 119 

he may not have baptism ; but if lie believeth not, he 
shall be in any case most surely damned. Let him be 
baptized by immersion or sprinkling, in his infancy 
or in his adult age : if he be not led to put his 
trust in Jesus Christ — if he remaineth an unbeliever 
— then this terrible doom is pronounced upon him, 
u He that believeth not shall be damned." I am not 
aware that any Protestant church in England teaches 
the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, except one, 
and that happens to be the corporation which, with 
none too much humility, calls itself the Church of 
England. This very powerful sect does not teach 
this doctrine merely through a section of its minis- 
ters, who might charitably be considered as evil 
branches of the vine, but it openly, boldly, and 
plainly declares this doctrine in her own appointed 
standard, the Book of Common Prayer, and that in 
words so express, that, while language is the chan- 
nel of conveying intelligible sense, no process short 
of violent wresting from their plain meaning can 
ever make them say anything else. 

Here are the words — we quote them from the Cat- 
echism which is intended for the instruction of youth, 
and is naturally very plain and simple, since it would 
be foolish to trouble the youth with metaphysical 
refinements. The child is asked its name, and then 
questioned, iC Who gave you this name ? " " My god- 
fathers and godmothers in my baptism; wherein I was 
made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an in- 



120 BAPTIST DOCTEINES. 

heritor of the "kingdom of heaven." Is not this definite 
and plain enough? I prize the words for their can- 
dor : they could not speak more plainly. Three times 
over the thing is put, lest there should be any doubt 
in it. The word regeneration may, by some sort of 
juggling, be made to mean something else ; but here 
there can be no misunderstanding. The child is not 
only made " a member of Christ," — union to Jesus is 
no mean spiritual gift, — but he is made in baptism 
u the child of God" also ; and, since the rule is, " if 
children, then heirs/' he is also made " an inheritor 
of the kingdom of heaven." Nothing can be more 
plain. T venture to say that, while honesty remains 
on earth, the meaning of these words will not admit 
of dispute. It is clear as noonday that, as the 
Rubric hath it, " Fathers, mothers, masters and dames 
are to cause their children, servants and appren- 
tices," no matter how idle, giddy, or wicked they 
may be, to learn the Catechism, and to say that in 
baptism they were made members of Christ and 
children of God. The form for the administration 
of this baptism is scarcely less plain and outspoken, 
seeing that thanks are expressly returned unto Al- 
mighty God because the person baptized is regener- 
ated : " Then shall the priest say, ' Seeing, now, dearly 
beloved brethren, that this child is regenerate and graft- 
ed into the body of Christ's church, let us give thanks 
unto Almighty God for these benefits', and with one 
accord make our prayers unto Mm, that this child may 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 121 

lead the res/ of his life according to this beginning.'" 
Nor is this all ; for, to leave no mistake, we have the 
words of the thanksgiving prescribed : " Then shall 
the priest say, ' We yield thee hearty thanks, most merci- 
ful Father, that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this 
infant with thy Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine oivn 
child by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy 
church. 1 " 

This, then, is the clear and unmistakable teaching 
of a church calling itself Protestant. I am not now 
dealing at all with the question of infant baptism : I 
have nothing to do with that this morning. I am 
now considering the question of baptismal regenera- 
tion, whether in adults or infants, or ascribed to 
sprinkling, pouring, or immersion. Here is a church 
which teaches every Lord's Day in the Sunday- 
school, and should, according to the Eubric, teach 
openly in the church, all children that they were 
made members of Christ, children of God, and 
inheritors of the kingdom of heaven when they were 
baptized ! Here is a professedly Protestant church, 
which, every time its minister goes to the font, de- 
clares that every person there receiving baptism is 
there and then "regenerated and grafted into the 
body of Christ's church." 

" B ut," I hear many good people exclaim, " there 
are many good clergyman in the church who do not 
believe in baptismal regeneration ! n To this my 
answer is prompt — Why, then, do they belong to a 



122 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

church which teaches that doetrine in the plainest 
terms ? I am told that many in the Church of Eng- 
land preach against her own teaching. I know they 
do, and herein I rejoice in their enlightenment, but I 
question, gravely question, their morality. To take 
oath that I sincerely assent and consent to a doctrine 
which I do not believe, would to my conscience 
appear little short of perjury, if not absolute, down- 
right perjury; but those who do so must be judged 
by their Lord. For me to take money for defending 
what I do not believe — for me to take the money of 
a church, and then to preach against what are most 
evidently its doctrines — I say for me to do this (I 
shall not judge the peculiar views of other men), for 
me or for any other simple, honest man to do so, 
were an atrocity so great that, if I had perpetrated 
the deed, I should consider myself out of the pale 
of truthfulness, honesty and common morality. Sirs, 
when I accepted the office of minister of this con- 
gregation, I looked to see what were your articles 
of faith. If I had not believed them I should not 
have accepted your call; and when I change my 
opinions, rest assured that, as an honest man, I shall 
resign the office ; for how could I profess one thing 
in your declaration of faith, and quite another thing 
in my own preaching? Would I accept your pay, 
and then stand up every Sabbath-day and talk 
against the doctrines of your standards ? For cler- 
gymen to swear or say that they give their solemn 
assent to what they do not believe, is one of the 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 123 

grossest pieces of immorality perpetrated in Eng- 
land, and is most pestilential in its influence, since it 
directly teaches men to lie whenever it seems neces- 
sary to do so in order to get a living or increase 
their supposed usefulness : it is in fact an open testi- 
mony from priestly lips that, at least in ecclesiastical 
matters, falsehood may express truth, and truth 
itself is a mere unimportant nonentity. I know of 
nothing more calculated to debauch the public mind 
than a want of straightforwardness in ministers ; and 
when worldly men hear ministers denouncing the 
very thing which their own Prayer-book teaches, 
they imagine that words have no meaning among 
ecclesiastics, and that vital differences in religion are 
merely a matter of tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum, 
and that it does not much matter what a man does 
believe so long as he is charitable towards other 
people. If baptism does regenerate people, let the 
fact be preached with a trumpet tongue, and let no 
man be ashamed of his belief in it. If this be really 
their creed, by all means let them have full liberty 
for its propagation. My brethren, those are honest 
Churchmen in this matter who, subscribing to the 
Prayer-book, believe in baptismal regeneration, and 
preach it plainly. God forbid that we should cen- 
sure those who believe that baptism saves the soul, 
because they adhere to a church which teaches the 
same doctrine. So far they are honest men; and in 
England, wherever else, let them never lack a full 



124 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

toleration. Let us oppose their teaching by all scrip- 
tural and intelligent means, but let us respect their 
courage in plainly giving us their views. I hate their 
doctrine, but I love their honesty ; and as they speak 
but what they believe to be true, let them speak it 
out, and the more clearly the better. Out with it, 
sirs, be it what it may, but do let us know what you 
mean. For my part, I love to stand foot to foot with 
an honest foeman. To open warfare, bold and fear- 
less hearts raise no objections but the ground of 
quarrel ; it is covert enmity which we have most 
cause to fear and best reason to loathe. That crafty 
kindness which inveigles me to sacrifice principle, is 
the serpent in the grass— deadly to the incautious 
wayfarer. Where union and friendship are not ce- 
mented by truth, they are an unallowed confederacy. 
It is time that there should be an end put to the flirt- 
ations of honest men with those who believe one 
way and swear another. If men believe baptism 
works regeneration, let them say so ; but if they do 
not so believe it in their hearts, and yet subscribe, 
and yet more, get their livings by subscribing to 
words asserting it, let them find congenial associates 
among men who can equivocate and shuffle, for hon- 
est men will neither ask nor accept their friendship. 
We, ourselves, are not dubious on this point : we 
protest that persons are not saved by being baptized. 
In such an audience as this, I am almost ashamed to 
go into the matter, because you surely know better 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 125 

than to be misled. Nevertheless, for the good of 
others, we will drive at it. We hold that persons 
are not saved by baptism ; for we think, first of all, 
that it seems out of character with the spiritual religion 
which Christ came to teach, that he should make salva- 
tion depend upon mere ceremony. Judaism might 
possibly absorb the ceremony by way of type into 
her ordinances essential to eternal life ; for it was a 
religion of types and shadows. The false religions 
of the heathen might inculcate salvation by a phys- 
ical process ; but Jesus Christ claims for his faith 
that it is purely spiritual, and how could he connect 
regeneration with a peculiar application of aqueous 
fluid ? I cannot see how it would be a spiritual gos- 
pel, but I can see how it would be mechanical, if I 
were sent forth to teach that the mere dropping of 
so many drops upon the brow, or even the plunging 
a person in water, could save the soul. This seems 
to me to be the most mechanical religion now exist- 
ing, and to be on a par with the praying windmills 
of Thibet, or the climbing up and down of Pilate's 
staircase to which Luther subjected himself in the 
days of his darkness. The operation of water bap- 
tism does not appear, even, to my faith, to touch the 
point involved in the regeneration of the soul. What 
is the necessary connection between water and the 
overcoming of sin? I cannot see any connection 
which can exist between sprinkling, or immersion, 
and regeneration, so that the one shall necessarily 



126 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

be tied to the other in the absence of faith. Used 
by faith, had God commanded it, miracles might be 
wrought; but without faith or even consciousness, 
as in the case of babes, how can spiritual benefits be 
connected necessarily with the sprinkling of water ? 
If this be your teaching, that regeneration goes with 
baptism, I say that it looks like the teaching of a spu- 
rious church, which has craftily invented a mechan- 
ical salvation to deceive ignorant, sensual, and grov- 
elling minds, rather than the teaching of the most 
profoundly spiritual of all teachers, who rebuked 
Scribes and Pharisees for regarding outward rites 
as more important than inward grace. 

But it strikes me that a more forcible argument is, 
that the dogma is not supported by facts. Are all per- 
sons who are baptized children of God ? Well, let us 
look at the divine family. Let us mark their resem- 
blance to their glorious Parent ! Am I untruthful if 
I say that thousands of those who were baptized in 
their infancy are now in our gaols ? You can ascer- 
tain the fact, if you please, by application to prison 
authorities. Do you believe that these men, many 
of whom have been living by plunder, felony, burg- 
lary, or forgery, are regenerate? If so, the Lord 
deliver us from such regeneration. Are these vil- 
lains members of Christ? If so, Christ has sadly 
altered since the day when he was holy, harmless, 
undefiled, separate from sinners. Has he really 
taken baptized drunkards and harlots to be members 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 127 

of his body ? Do you not revolt at the supposition ? 
It is a well-known fact that baptized persons have 
been hanged. Surely it can hardly be right to hang 
the inheritors of the kingdom of heaven ! Our sher- 
iffs have much to answer for when they officiate at 
the execution of the children of God, and suspend 
the members of Christ on the gallows ! What a 
detestable farce is that which is transacted at the 
open grave, when u a dear brother," who has died 
drunk, is buried in a " sure and certain hope of the 
resurrection to eternal life," and the prayer that 
u when we shall depart this life we may rest in Christ, 
as our hope is that this our brother doth." He is a 
regenerate brother, who, having defiled the village 
by constant uncleanliness and bestial drunkenness, 
died without a sign of repentance ; and yet the pro- 
fessed minister of God solemnly accords him funeral 
rites which are denied to unbaptized innocents, and 
puts the reprobate into the earth in " sure and cer- 
tain hope of the resurrection to eternal life." If old 
Kome in her worst days ever perpetrated a grosser 
piece of imposture than this, I do not read things 
aright; if it does not require a Luther to cry down 
this hypocrisy as much as Popery ever did, then I 
do not even know that twice two make four. Do we 
find — we who baptize on profession of faith, and bap- 
tize by immersion in a way which is confessed to be 
correct, though not allowed by some to be absolutely 
necessary to its validity — do we, who baptize in the 



128 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

name of the Sacred Trinity as others do, do we find 
that baptism regenerates f We do not Neither in 
the righteous nor the wicked do we find regeneration 
wrought by baptism. We have never met with one 
believer, however instructed in divine things, who 
could trace his regeneration to his baptism ; and on 
the other hand, we confess it with sorrow, but still 
with no surprise, that we have seen those whom we 
have ourselves baptized, according to apostolic pre- 
cedent, go back into the world and wander into the 
foulest sin, and their baptism has scarcely been so 
much as a restraint to them, because they have not 
believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Facts all show 
that whatever good there may be in baptism, it cer- 
tainly does not make a man "a member of Christ, 
the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of 
heaven," or else many thieves, whoremongers, drunk- 
ards, fornicators, and murderers are members of 
Christ, the children of God, and inheritors of the 
kingdom of heaven. Facts, brethren, are dead against 
this popish doctrine; and facts are stubborn things. 
Yet further, I am persuaded that the performance 
styled baptism by the Prayer-Boole is not at all likely to 
regenerate and save. How is the thing done ? One is 
very curious to know when one hears of an operation 
which makes men members of Christ, children of 
God, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, how 
the thing is done. It must in itself be a holy thing, 
truthful in all its details, and edifying in every por- 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 129 

ticm. Xow, we will suppose we have a company 
gathered round the water, be it more or less, and the 
process of regeneration is about to be performed. 
We will suppose them all to be godly people. The 
clergyman officiating is a profound believer in the 
Lord Jesus, and the father and mother are exem- 
plary Christians, and the godfathers and godmothers 
are all gracious persons. We will suppose this : it is 
a supposition fraught with charity, but it may be cor- 
rect. What are these godly people supposed to say ? 
Let us look at the Prayer-Book. The clergyman is 
supposed to tell the people, " Ye have heard also that 
our Lord Jesus Christ hath promised in his gospel to 
grant all these things that ye have prayed for : which 
promise lie, for his part, will surely keep and perform. 
Wherefore, after this promise made by Christ, this infant 
must also faithfully, for his part, promise by you that 
are his sureties ( until he come of age to take it upon 
himself) that he ivill renounce the devil and all his works, 
and constantly believe Godh Holy ivord, and obediently 
keep his commandments." This small child is to prom- 
ise to do this ; or, more truly, others are to be taken 
upon themselves to promise, and even vow that he 
shall do so. But we must not break the quotation, 
and therefore let us return to the Book : " I demand, 
therefore, dost thou, in the name of this child, 
renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp 
and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of 
the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that 

9 



130 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

thou wilt not follow, nor be led by them ? " Answer : 
" I renounce them all." That is to say, in the name 
and behalf of this tender infant about to be baptized, 
these godly people, these enlightened Christian peo- 
ple, these who know better, who are not dupes, who 
know all the while that they are promising impossi- 
bilities, renounce on behalf of this child what they 
find it very hard to renounce for themselves, — " all 
covetous desires of the world and the carnal desires 
of the flesh, so that they will not follow nor be led 
by them." How can they harden their faces to utter 
such a false promise, such a mockery of renunciation, 
before the presence of the Father Almighty ? Might 
not angels weep as they hear the awful promise 
uttered ? Then in the presence of High Heaven they 
profess on behalf of this child that he steadfastly 
believes the creed, when they know, or might pretty 
shrewdly judge, that the little creature is not yet a 
steadfast believer in anything, much less in Christ's 
going down into hell. Mark, they do not say merely 
that the babe shall believe the creed, but they affirm 
that he does ; for they answer in the child's name, 
"All this we steadfastly believe." Not ice steadfastly 
believe, but J, the little baby there, unconscious of 
all their professions and confessions of faith. In 
answer to the question, " Wilt thou be baptized in 
this faith ? " they reply for the infant, " That is my 
desire." Surely the infant has no desire in the mat- 
ter, or at least no one has been authorized to declare 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 131 

any desire on his behalf. But this is not all ; for then 
these godly, intelligent people next promise on behalf 
of the infant that " he shall obediently keep all God's 
holy will and commandments, and walk in the same 
all the days of his life." Now, I ask you, dear friends, 
you who know what true religion means, can you 
walk in all God's holy commandments yourselves ? 
Dare you make this day a vow on your own part, that 
you would renounce the devil and all his works, the 
pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the 
sinful lusts of the flesh f Dare you, before God, make 
such a promise as that? You desire such holiness; 
you earnestly strive after it ; but you look for it from 
God's promise, not from your own. If you dare make 
such vows, I doubt your knowledge of your own 
hearts and of the spirituality of God's law. But even 
if you could do this for yourself, would you venture 
to make such a promise for any other person ? — for 
the best-born infant on earth ? Come, brethren, what 
say you ? Is not your reply ready and plain ? There 
is not room for two opinions among men determined 
to observe truth in all their ways and words. I can 
understand a simple, ignorant rustic, who has never 
learned to read, doing all this at the command of a 
priest and under the eye of a squire. I can even 
understand persons doing this when the Eeformation 
was in its dawn, and men had newly crept out of the 
darkness of Popery ; but I cannot understand, gra- 
cious, godly people standing at the font to insult the 



132 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

All-gracious Father with vows and promises framed 
upon a fiction, and involving practical falsehood. 
How dare intelligent believers in Christ to utter 
words which they know in their conscience to be 
wickedly aside from truth ? When I shall be able 
to understand the process by which gracious men 
so accommodate their consciences, even then I shall 
have a confirmed belief that the God of truth never 
did and never will confirm a spiritual blessing of the 
highest order in connection with the utterance of 
such false promises and untruthful vows. My breth- 
ren, does it not strike you that declarations so ficti- 
tious are not likely to be connected with a new birth 
wrought by the Spirit of truth ? 

I have not done with this point : I must take 
another case, and suppose the sponsors and others 
to be ungodly; and that is no hard supposition, for 
in many cases we know that godfathers and parents 
have no more thought of religion than that idolatrous 
hallowed stone around which they gather. When 
these sinners have taken their places, what are they 
about to say ? Why, they are about to make the 
solemn vows I have already recounted in your 
hearing ? Totally irreligious they are, but yet they 
promise for the baby what they never did, and never 
thought of doing, for themselves, — they promise on 
behalf of this child, " that he will renounce the devil 
and all his works, and constantly believe God's Holy 
Word, and obediently keep his commandments." 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 133 

My brethren, do not think I speak severely here. 
Eeally, I think there is something here to make 
mockery for devils. Let every honest man lament 
that ever God's church should tolerate such a thing 
as this, and that there should be found gracious peo- 
ple who will feel grieved because I, in all kindness 
of heart, rebuked the atrocity. Unregenerate sin- 
ners promising for a poor babe that he shall keep all 
God's holy commandments, which they themselves 
wantonly break every day ! How can anything but 
the long-suffering of God endure this ? What ! not 
speak against it ? The very stones in the street might 
cry out against the infamy of wicked men and women 
promising that another should renounce the devil 
and all his works, while they themselves serve the 
devil and do his works with greediness ! As a cli- 
max to all this, I am asked to believe that God 
accepts that wicked promise, and, as the result of it, 
regenerates that child. You cannot believe in regen- 
eration, by this operation, whether saints or sinners 
are the performers. Take them to be godly, then 
they are wrong for doing what their conscience must 
condemn ; view them as ungodly, and they are wrong 
for promising what they know they cannot perform ; 
and in neither case can God accept such worship, 
much less infallibly append regeneration to such a 
baptism as this. 

But you will say, " Why do you cry out against it ? " 
I cry out against it because I believe that baptism 



134 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

does not save the soul, and that the preaching of it 
has a wrong and evil influence upon men. We meet 
with persons who, when we tell them that they must 
be born again, assure us that they were born again 
when they were baptized. The number of these 
persons is increasing, fearfully increasing, until all 
grades of society are misled by this belief. How 
can any man stand up in his pulpit and say "Ye 
must be born again "to his congregation, when he 
has already assured them, by his own " unfeigned 
assent and consent " to it, that they are themselves, 
every one of them, born again in baptism. What 
has he to do with them f Why, my dear friends, 
the gospel then has no voice ; they have rammed 
this ceremony down its throat, and it cannot speak 
to rebuke sin. The man who has been baptized or 
sprinkled, says, " I am saved ; I am a member of 
Christ, a child of God, and an inheritor of the 
kingdom of heaven. Who are you, that you should 
rebuke mef Call me to repentance? — call me to a 
new life? What better life can I have? for I am a 
member of Christ — a part of Christ's body. What ! 
rebuke mef I am a child of God. Cannot you see it 
in my face % No matter what my walk and conversa- 
tion is, I am a child of God. Moreover, I am an 
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven. It is true I 
drink and swear, and all that, but you know I am an 
inheritor of the kingdom of heaven ; for when I die, 
though I live in constant sin, you will put me in the 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 135 

grave, and tell everybody that I died 'in sure and 
certain hope of the resurrection to eternal life.' " 

Xow, what can be the influence of such preaching 
as this upon our beloved England? — upon my dear 
and blessed country? What but the worst of ills? 
If I loved her not, but loved myself most, I might 
be silent here ; but, loving England, I can not and 
dare not; and having soon to render an account 
before my God, whose servant I hope I am, I must 
free myself from this evil, as well as from every 
other, or else on my head may be the doom of souls. 

Here let me bring in another point. It is a most 
fearful fact, that, in no age since the Reformation, has 
Popery made such fearful strides in England as during 
the last few gears. I had comfortably believed that 
Popery was only feeding itself upon foreign subscrip- 
tions, upon a few titled perverts, and imported monks 
and nuns. I dreamed that its progress was not real. 
In fact, I have often smiled at the alarm of many of 
my brethren at the progress of Popery. But, my 
dear friends, we have been mistaken, grievously mis- 
taken. If you will read a valuable paper in the 
magazine called Christian Work, those of you who 
are acquainted with it will be perfectly startled at its 
revelations. This great city is now covered with a 
network of monks and priests and sisters of mercy, 
and the conversions made are not by ones or twos, 
but by scores, till England is being regarded as the 
most hopeful spot for Romish missionary enterprise 



136 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

in the whole world ; and at the present moment there 
is not a mission which is succeeding to anything like 
the extent which the English mission is. I covet not 
their money, I despise their sophistries, but I marvel 
at the way in which they gain their funds for the 
erection of their ecclesiastical buildings. It really 
is an alarming matter to see so many of our country- 
men going off to that superstition which as a nation 
we once rejected, and which it was supposed we 
should never again receive. Popery is making 
advances such as you would never believe, though 
a spectator should tell it to you. Close to your very 
doors, perhaps even in your own houses, you may 
have evidence ere long of what a march Eomanism 
is making. And to what is it to be ascribed? I say, 
with every ground of probability, that there is no 
marvel that Popery should increase when you have 
two things to make it grow : first of all, the false- 
hood of those who profess a faith which they do not 
believe, which is quite contrary to the honesty of 
the Eomanist, who does through evil report and good 
report hold his faith ; and then you have, secondly, 
this form of error known as baptismal regeneration, 
and commonly called Puseyism, which is not only 
Puseyism, but Ohurch-of-Englandism, because it is 
in the Prayer-Book, as plainly as words can express 
it, — you have this baptismal regeneration, preparing 
stepping-stones to make it easy for men to go to 
Rome. I have but to open my eyes a little to fore- 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. • 137 

see Romanism rampant everywhere in the future, 
since its germs are spreading everywhere in the 
present. In one of our courts of legislature, but 
last Tuesday, the Lord Chief Justice showed his 
superstition, by speaking of "the risk of the calam- 
ity of children dying unbaptized l w Among Dissent- 
ers you see a veneration for structures, a modified 
belief in the sacredness of places, which is all idol- 
atry ; for to believe in the sacredness of anything but 
of God and of his own Word, is to idolize, whether 
it is to believe in the sacredness of the men, the 
priests, or in the sacredness of the bricks and mor- 
tar, or of the fine linen, or what not, which you may 
use in the worship of God. I see this coming up 
everywhere — a belief in ceremony, a resting in cere- 
mony, a veneration for altars, fonts and churches, — 
a veneration so profound that we must not venture 
upon a remark, or straightway of sinners we are 
chief. Here is the essence and soul of Popery, 
peeping up under the garb of a decent respect for 
sacred things. It is impossible but that the Church 
of Rome must spread, when we who are the watch- 
dogs of the fold are silent, and others are gently and 
smoothly turfing the road, and making it as soft and 
smooth as possible, that converts may travel down 
to the nethermost hell of Popery. We want John 
Knox back again. Do not talk to me of mild and 
gentle men, of soft manners and squeamish words : 
we want the fiery Knox; and even though his vehe- 



138 • BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

mence should " ding our pulpits into blads," it were 
well if he did but rouse our hearts to action. We 
want Luther, to tell men the truth unmistakably, in 
homely phrase. The velvet has got into our minis- 
ters' mouths of late, but we must unrobe ourselves of 
soft raiment, and truth must be spoken, and nothing 
but truth ; for of all lies which have dragged millions 
down to hell, I look upon this as being one of the 
most atrocious, — that in a Protestant church there 
should be found those who swear that baptism saves 
the soul. Call a man a Baptist, or a Presbyterian, or 
a Dissenter, or a Churchman, — that is nothing to me : 
if he says that baptism saves the soul, out upon him, 
out upon him: he states what God never taught, 
what the Bible never laid down, and what ought 
never to be maintained by men who profess that the 
Bible, and the whole Bible, is the religion of Protest- 
ants. 

I have spoken thus much, and there will be some 
who will say, spoken thus much bitterly. Yery well ; 
be it so. Physic is often bitter, but it it shall work 
well, and the physician is not bitter because his med- 
icine is so ; or if he be accounted so, it will not 
matter, so long as the patient is cured; at all events 
is no business of the patient whether the physician 
is bitter or not: his business is with his own soul's 
health. There is the truth, and I have told it to you ; 
and if there should be one among you, or if there 
should be one among the readers of this sermon 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 139 

when it is printed, who is resting on baptism, or rest- 
ing upon ceremonies of any sort, I do beseech you r 
shake off this venomous faith into the fire as Paul 
did the viper which fastened on his hand. I pray 
you do not rest on baptism. 

" No outward forms can make you clean : 
The leprosy lies deep within." 

I do beseech you to remember that you must have 
a new heart and a right spirit, and baptism cannot 
give you these. You must turn from your sins and 
follow after Christ ; you must have such a faith as 
shall make your life holy and your speech devout, or 
else you have not the faith of God's elect, and into 
God's kingdom you shall never come. I pray you 
never rest upon this wretched and rotten foundation^ 
this deceitful invention of antichrist. Oh ! may God 
save you from it, and bring you to seek the true rock 
of refuge for weary souls. 

I come with much brevity, and I hope with much 
earnestness, in the second place, to say that faith 

IS THE INDISPENSABLE REQUISITE TO SALVATION. 

" He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; 
he that believeth not shall be damned." Faith is the 
one indispensable requisite for salvation. This faith 
is the gift of God. It is the work of the Holy 
Spirit. Some men believe not on Jesus ; they 
believe not, because they are not of Christ's sheep r 
as he himself said unto them ; but his sheep hear his 



140 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

voice : he knows them and they follow hiin ; he gives 
to them eternal life, and they shall never perish, 
neither shall any pluck them out of his hand. What 
is this believing? Believing consists in two things. 
First, there is an accrediting of the testimony of God 
concerning his Son. God tells you that his Son 
came into the world and was made flesh; that he 
lived on earth for men's sake; that after having 
spent his life in holiness he was offered up a propi- 
tiation for sin ; that upon the cross he there and then 
made expiation — so made expiation for the sins of 
the world that " whosoever believeth in him shall 
not perish, but have everlasting life." If you would 
be saved, you must accredit this testimony which 
God gives concerning his own Son. Having received 
this testimony, the next thing is to confide in it. Indeed, 
here lies, I think, the essence of saving faith, to rest 
yourself for eternal salvation upon the atonement 
and the righteousness of Jesus Christ, to have done 
once for all with all reliance upon feelings or upon 
doings, and to trust in Jesus Christ and in what he 
did for your salvation. 

This is faith, receiving of the truth of Christ : first 
knowing it to be true, and then acting upon that 
belief. Such a faith as this — such real faith as this 
— makes the man henceforth hate sin. How can he 
iove the thing which made the Saviour bleed I It 
makes him live in holiness. How can he but seek to 
honor that God who has loved him so much as to 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 141 

give his Son to die for him? This faith is spiritual 
in its nature and effects ; it operates upon the entire 
man ; it changes his heart, enlightens his judgment, 
and subdues his will; it subjects him to God's 
supremacy, and makes him receive God's Word as a 
little child, willing to receive the truth upon the 
ipse dixit of the Divine One; it sanctifies his intel- 
lect, and makes him willing to be taught God's 
Word; it cleanses within; it makes clean the inside 
of the cup and platter, and it beautifies without; it 
makes clean the exterior conduct and the inner 
motive, so that the man, if his faith be true and 
real, becomes henceforth another man to what he 
ever was before. 

Xow that such a faith as this should save the soul, 
is, I believe, reasonable ; yea, more, it is certain, for 
we have seen men saved by it in this very house of 
prayer. We have seen the harlot lifted out of the 
Stygian ditch of her sin, and made an honest 
woman; we have seen the thief reclaimed; we have 
known the drunkard, in hundreds of instances, to 
be sobered; we have observed faith to work such a 
change, that all the neighbors who have seen it have 
gazed and admired, even though they hated it ; we 
have seen faith deliver men in the hour of tempta- 
tion, and help them to consecrate themselves and 
their substance to God; we have seen, and hope 
still to see yet more widely, deeds of heroic consecra- 
tion to God and displays of witness-bearing against 



142 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the common current of the times, which have proved 
to us that faith does affect the man, does save the 
soul. My hearers, if you would be saved, you must 
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me urge you 
with all my heart to look nowhere but to Christ cru- 
cified for your salvation. Oh ! if you rest upon any 
ceremony, though it be not baptism — if you rest upon 
any other than Jesus Christ — you must perish, as 
surely as this book is true. I pray you believe not 
every spirit, but though I, or an angel from heaven, 
preach any other doctrine than this, let him be 
accursed j for this, and this alone, is the soul-saving 
truth which shall regenerate the world— " He that 
believeth and is baptized shall be saved." Away 
from all the tag-rags, wax candles, and millinery of 
Puseyism! away from all the gorgeous pomp of 
Popery ! away from the fonts of Church-of-England- 
ism ! We bid you turn your eyes to that naked cross, 
where hangs as a bleeding man the Son of God. 

" None but Jesus, none but Jesus 
Can do helpless sinners good." 

There is life in a look at the Crucified; there is 
life at this moment for you. Whoever among you 
can believe in the great love of God towards man in 
Christ Jesus, you shall be saved. If you can believe 
that our great Father desireth us to come to him — 
that he panteth for us — that he calleth us every day 
with the loud voice of his Son's wounds ; if you can 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 143 

believe now that in Christ there is pardon for trans- 
gressions past, and cleansing for years to come; if 
you can trust him to save you, you have already the 
marks of regeneration. The work of salvation is 
commenced in you, so far as the Spirit's work is con- 
cerned ; it is finished in you so far as Christ's work 
is concerned. Oh! I would plead with you, lay hold 
on Jesus Christ. This is the foundation: build on it. 
This is the rock of refuge: fly to it. I pray you fly 
to it now. Life is short; time speeds with eagle's 
wing. Swift as the dove pursued by the hawk, fly, 
fly, poor sinner, to God's dear Son: now touch the 
hem of his garment; now look into that dear face, 
once marred with sorrows for you; look into those 
eyes, once shedding tears for you. Trust him, and 
if you find him false, then you must perish ; but false 
you never will find him while this word standeth 
true, " He that believeth and is baptized shall be 
sa^ed ; but he that believeth not shall be damned." 
God give us this vital, essential faith, without which 
there is no salvation. Baptized, re-baptized, circum- 
cised, confirmed, fed upon sacraments, and buried in 
consecrated ground — ye shall all perish except ye 
believe in him. The Word is express and plain ; he 
that believeth not may plead his baptism, may plead 
anything he likes, " But he that believeth not shall 
be damned ; " for him there is nothing but the wrath 
of God, the flames of hell, eternal perdition. So 
Christ declares, and so must it be. 



144 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

But now to close, there are some who say, " Ah ! 
but baptism is in the text; where do you put that?" 
That shall be another point, and then we have done. 

THE BAPTISM IN THE TEXT IS ONE EVIDENTLY 

connected with faith. " He that believeth and 
is baptized shall be saved." It strikes me, there is 
no supposition here that anybody would be baptized 
who did not believe; or if there be such a supposi- 
tion, it is very clearly laid down that his baptism will 
be of no use to him, for he will be damned, baptized 
or not, unless he believes. The baptism of the text 
seems to me, my brethren, — if you differ from me I 
am sorry for it, but I must hold my opinion, and out 
with it, — it seems to me that baptism is connected 
with, nay, directly follows belief. I would not insist 
too much upon the order of the words ; but, for 
other reasons, I think that baptism should follow 
believing. At any rate, it effectually avoids the 
error we have been combatting. A man who knows 
that he is saved by believing in Christ does not, 
when he is baptized, lift his baptism into a saving 
ordinance. In fact, he is the very best protester 
against that mistake, because he holds that he has no 
right to be baptized until he is saved. He bears a 
testimony against baptismal regeneration in his being 
baptized as professedly an already regenerate per- 
son. Brethren, the baptism here meant is a baptism 
connected with faith, and to this baptism I will admit 
there is very much ascribed in Scripture. Into that 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 145 

question I am not going; but I do find some very 
remarkable passages in which baptism is spoken of 
very strongly. I find this : " Arise, and be baptized, 
and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the 
Lord." I find as much as this elsewhere. I know 
that believer's baptism itself does not wash away 
sin, yet it is so the outward sign and emblem of it to 
the believer, that the thing visible may be described 
as the thing signified. Just as our Saviour said, 
" This is my body," when it was not his body, but 
bread : yet, inasmuch as it represented his body, it 
was fair and right according to the usage of language 
to say, " Take, eat, this is my body." And so, inas- 
much as baptism to the believer represented the 
washing of sin, it may be called the washing of sin ; 
not that it is so, but that it is to saved souls the out- 
ward symbol and representation of what is done by 
the power of the Holy Spirit in the man who believes 
in Christ. 

What connection has this baptism with faith ? I 
think it has just this, baptism is the avowal of faith ; 
the man was Christ's soldier, but now in baptism he 
puts on his regimentals. The man believed in Christ, 
but his faith remained between God and his own 
soul. In baptism he says to the baptizer, " I believe 
in Jesus Christ ; " he says to the church, " 1 unite 
with you as a believer in the common truths of 
Christianity ; " he saith to the onlooker, " Whatever 
you may do, as for me, I will serve the Lord." It is 
the avowal of his faith. 10 



146 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Next, we think baptism is also to the believer a 
testimony of his faith ; he does in baptism tell the 
world what he believes. "I am about," saith he, 
"to be buried in water. I believe that the Son of 
God was metaphorically baptized in suffering; I 
believe he was literally dead and buried." To rise 
again out of the water sets forth to all men that he 
believes in the resurrection of Christ. There is a 
showing forth in the Lord's Supper of Christ's death, 
and there is a showing forth in baptism of Christ's 
burial and resurrection. It is a type, a sign, a sym- 
bol, a mirror to the world,— a looking-glass, in which 
religion is as it were reflected. We say to the on- 
looker, when he asks what is the meaning of this 
ordinance, "We mean to set forth our faith that 
Christ was buried, and that he rose again from the 
dead ; and we avow this death and resurrection to 
be the ground of our trust." 

Again, baptism is also Faith's taking her proper 
place. It is, or should be, one of her first acts of 
obedience Reason looks at baptism, and says, 
" Perhaps there is nothing in it; it cannot do me any 
good." "True," says Faith, "and therefore I will 
observe it. If it did me some good, my selfishness 
would make me do it ; but inasmuch as to my sense 
there is no good in it, since I am bidden by my Lord 
thus to fulfill all righteousness, it is my first public 
declaration that a thing which looks to be unreason- 
able and seems to be unprofitable, being commanded 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 147 

by God, is law to me. If my Master had told me to 
pick up six stones and lay tliem in a row I would do 
it, without demanding of him, ' What good will it do ? ' 
Cui bono f is no fit question for soldiers of Jesus. 
The very simplicity and apparent uselessness of the 
ordinance should make the believer say, ' Therefore 
I do it because it becomes the better test to me of 
my obedience to my Master.' " When you tell your 
servant to do something, and he cannot comprehend 
it, if he turns round and says, " Please, sir, what for % " 
you are quite clear that he hardly understands the 
relation between master and servant. So when God 
tells me to do a thing, if I say, "What for? V I can- 
not have taken the place which Faith ought to occupy, 
which is that of simple obedience to whatever the 
Lord hath said. Baptism is commanded, and Faith 
obeys because it is commanded, and thus takes her 
proper place. 

Once more, k]^<>m is a refreshment to faith. While 
we are made up of body and soul as we are, we shall 
need some means by which the body shall sometimes 
be stirred up to co-work with the soul. In the Lord's 
Supper my faith is assisted by the outward and visi- 
ble sign. In the bread and in the wine I see no 
superstitious mystery: I see nothing but bread and 
wine ; but in that bread and wine I do see to my faith 
an assistant. Through the sign my faith sees the 
thing signified. So in baptism there is no mysterious 
efficacy in the baptistry or in the water. We attach 



148 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

no reverence to the one or to the other ; but we do 
see in the water and in the baptism such an assist- 
ance as brings home to our faith most manifestly our 
being buried with Christ, and our rising again in 
newness of life with him. Explain baptism thus, 
dear friends, and there is no fear of Popery rising 
out of it. Explain it thus, and we cannot suppose 
any soul will be led to trust to it; but it takes its 
proper place among the ordinances of God's house. 
To lift it up in the other way, and say men are saved 
by it — ah ! my friends, how much of mischief that 
one falsehood has done and may do, eternity alone 
will disclose. Would to God another George Fox 
would spring up, in all his quaint simplicity and rude 
honesty, to rebuke the idol-worship of this age ; to 
rail at their holy bricks and mortar, holy lecturns, 
holy altars, holy surplices, right reverend fathers, 
and I know not what. These things are not holy. 
God is holy; his truth is holy : holiness belongs not 
to the carnal and the material, but to the spiritual. 
Oh that a trumpet tongue would cry out against the 
superstition of the age ! I cannot, as George Fox 
did, give up baptism and the Lord's Supper ; but I 
would infinitely sooner do it, counting it the smaller 
mistake of the two, than perpetrate and assist in 
perpetrating the uplifting of baptism and the Lord's 
Supper out of their proper place. O my beloved 
friends, the comrades of my struggles and witness- 
ings, cling to the salvation of faith, and abhor the 



BAPTISMAL REGENERATION. 149 

salvation of priests. If I am not mistaken, the day 
will come when we shall have to light for a simple 
spiritual religion far more than we do now. We 
have been cultivating friendship with those who are 
either unscriptural in creed or else dishonest ; who 
either believe baptismal regeneration, or profess 
that they do, and swear before God that they do 
when they do not. The time is come when there 
shall be no more truce or parley between God's ser- 
vants and time-servers. The time is come when 
those who follow God must follow God, and those 
who try to trim and dress themselves and find out a 
way which is pleasing to the flesh and gentle to car- 
nal desires, must go their way. A great winnowing- 
time is coming to God's saints, and we shall be 
clearer one of these days than we now are from 
union with those who are upholding Popery, under 
the pretence of teaching Protestantism. We shall 
be clear, I say, of those who teach salvation by 
baptism, instead of salvation by the blood of our 
blessed Master, Jesus Christ. Oh, may the Lord 
gird up your loins ! Believe me, it is no trifle. It 
may be that on this ground Armageddon shall be 
fought. Here shall come the great battle between 
Christ and his saints on the one hand, and the world 
and forms and ceremonies on the other. If we are 
overcome here, there may be years of blood and per- 
secution, and tossing to and fro between darkness and 
light ; but if we are brave and bold, and flinch not 



150 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

here, but stand to God's truth, the future of Eng- 
land may be bright and glorious. Oh for a truly 
reformed Church in England, and a godly race to 
maintain it ! The world's future depends on it under 
God ; for in proportion as truth is marred at home, 
truth is maimed abroad. Out of any system which 
teaches salvation by baptism must spring infidelity, 
an infidelity which the false church already seems 
willing to nourish and foster beneath her wing. 
God save this favored land from the brood of her 
own established religion. Brethren, stand fast in 
the liberty wherewith Christ has made you free, and 
be not afraid of any sudden fear nor calamity when 
it cometh ; for he who trusteth to the Lord, mercy 
shall compass him about, and he who is faithful to 
God and Christ shall hear it said at the last, " Well 
done, good and faithful servant : enter thou into the 
joy of the Lord." May the Lord bless this word, 
for Christ's sake. 



IMMEESIOX ESSENTIAL TO CHKISTIAN 
BAPTISM. 



BY REV. HENRY S. BURRAGE, PORTLAND, MAINE. 



" Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; 
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded yon ; and, lo, I am with 3-011 alway, even unto the 
end of the world " Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. 

" And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach 
the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is bap- 
tized shall be saved, but he that believeth not shall be 
damned." Mark xvi. 15, 16. 

"And Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every 
one of you in the name o Jesns Christ for the remission of 
sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.*" 
Acts ii. 3S. 

In these passages of the Gospels by Matthew and 
Mark, we have what is called the Great Commission. 
Beginning at Jerusalem, the disciples were to go 
into all the earth and preach the gospel to every 
creature. As messengers of Christ they were to 
make prominent in their preaching the saving truths 
which they had received from their Master's lips. 
Yet this was not all. Having done this, having 
made disciples by their divine message, they were 
to baptize these disciples. " Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the 

15J 



152 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." 
The words in Mark's gospel are of like import, 
although the form of expression is different. " Go 
ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every 
creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall 
be saved.' 7 First, as we see, there was to be instruc- 
tion leading to discipleship, then baptism as the pro- 
fession of discipleship. That the apostles so under- 
stood the Saviour's words is evident from the New 
Testament records. Peter's injunction, on the day 
of Pentecost, is an illustration. When the multi- 
tude, moved by the apostle's preaching, cried out, 
" Men and brethren what shall we do ? " Peter 
replied, " Eepent and be baptized." It was as if he 
had recalled the very words of the Great Commis- 
sion, — " teaching them to observe all things whatso- 
ever I have commanded you " — or those other words 
of Christ, which bring before us the Saviour's test 
of true discipleship, — " Ye are my friends, if ye do 
whatsoever I command you." 

The Saviour, however, was addressing not merely 
the little company gathered around him on that hill- 
side in Galilee, but all who should believe on him, 
in all the ages of the Christian Church. In one 
comprehensive glance, as it were, he took in the 
work of converting the nations ; and he added words 
which show that in his injunction concerning the 
work of evangelization, and the administration of 
the ordinance of baptism, his followers were to find 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 153 

a perpetual obligation, — " Lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world." 

But while it is generally conceded that baptism is 
an ordinance divinely instituted, and of perpetual 
obligation, there are many who profess and call 
themselves Christians, who deny that immersion is 
essential to Christian baptism. They will admit, 
especially if they are familiar with the recent litera- 
ture of the subject, that immersion was the primi- 
tive act. The references to the administration of 
the ordinance which we find in the New Testament, 
they say, make this plain. Thus, John baptized the 
multitudes "in the Jordan," ( Matt. iii. 6 ) ; "in the 
river Jordan," ( Mark i. 5 ) ; while the Saviour he bap- 
tized " into the Jordan, " ( Mark i. 10.) Moreover, in 
those passages in our English version where we find 
the words " with water," as in Matt. iii. 11, " I indeed 
baptize you with water," the Greek has "in water." 
Stanley thus recognizes the requirements of the 
Scripture narrative, when, referring to those who 
were baptized in Jordan, he says, "John plunged 
them under the rapid torrent." 1 

We are also told in the New Testament, they add, 
that leaving the Jordan, John baptized at " iEnon 
near to Saliin," and the reason given is " because 
there was much water there," ( John iii. 23 ) ; from 
which it is certainly a fair inference that, had there 
not been "much water" there, the Baptist himself 

1 Sinai and Palestine, p. 306. 



154 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

would not have been there. Condor, of the British 
Boyal Engineers and officer in charge of the Survey 
Expedition of the Palestine Exploration Fund, recog- 
nizes this fact in his Tent-work in Palestine, 1 when,, 
referring to the probable site of ^Enon in the valley 
near Shechem, he says : " The valley is open in most 
parts of its course, and we find the two requisites for 
the scene of the baptism of a huge multitude — an 
open space and abundance of water." 

In the Acts of the Apostles also, in the case of 
the eunuch, the primitive act is very clearly indi- 
cated. Having been instructed by Philip in refer- 
ence to the great facts concerning salvation by 
Christ, and the way in which the disciple confesses 
his faith in Christ, the eunuch exclaims, " See, here 
is water, what doth hinder me to be baptized ? " 
Philip replies, " If thou believest with all thine heart 
thou niayest." And having answered, " I believe 
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God," the eunuch 
commanded the chariot to stand still, "and they 
went down both into the water, both Philip and the 
eunuch, and he baptized him." It has been said by 
some that the words here translated " into the 
water " may be translated " unto the water," and they 
picture the eunuch standing by " an evanescent road- 
side rain-pool," while Philip, with a few drops of 
water upon the tips of his fingers, administers the 
sacred rite. But though it is true that the Greek 

i Vol. I., p. 99. 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 155 

preposition here used may sometimes mean " unto," 
it will be seen that in this passage it stands opposed 
to another preposition in the following verse, which 
can only be understood " out of;" so that Philip 
and the eunuch must have gone down into the water 
in order to come up out of the water. As Prof, 
Plumptre, in Ellicott's Commentary for English Read- 
ers, in which are embodied the results of recent 
scholarship, says : u The eunuch would lay aside his 
garments, descend chest deep into the water, and be 
plunged under it * in the name of the Lord Jesus.' " x 
And with this view, that immersion was the primi- 
tive act of baptism, the best church histories are in 
agreement. Kurtz says, "Baptism was administered 
by complete immersion in the name of Christ, or else 
the Triune God. (Matt, xxviii. 19)." 2 Pressense 
says : u Baptism, which was the sign of admission into 
the church, was administered by immersion. The con- 
vert was plunged beneath the water, and as he rose 
from it he received the laying on of hands." 3 Stan- 
ley says : "There can be no question that the orig- 
inal form of baptism, the very meaning of the word, 
was complete immersion in the deep baptismal 
waters, and that for at least four centuries any other 
form was either unknown or regarded, unless in the 
case of dangerous illness, as an exceptional, almost 
a monstrous case The Latin church has wholly 

i Xote on Acts 8 : 38. 

2 Church History, p. 70. 

3 Early Years of Christianity, p. 374. 



156 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

altered the mode, and, with the two exceptions of 
the Cathedral of Milan and the sect of the Baptists, 
a few drops of water are now the western substi- 
tute for the three-fold plunge into the running rivers 
or the wide baptisteries of the East. 771 These testi- 
monies might be greatly multiplied, but those we 
have given are sufficient to show that the evidence 
is clear and decisive that immersion was the primi- 
tive act of baptism, and that scholars of every name 
agree in accepting it. 

There are many, however, as we have already 
remarked, who, though they admit that baptism in 
the primitive church was administered by immer- 
sion, nevertheless deny that immersion is essential 
to the proper administration of the rite. They say : 
*' We find nothing in the original institution, or in 
the nature or uses of the rite, requiring it to be 
administered in one precise mode. 772 According to 
Dean Stanley there is in this matter such a thing as 
"a wise exercise of Christian freedom, 773 or "the 
triumph of common sense and convenience over the 
bondage of form and custom, 7 ' 4 and so by him, and 
many others who agree with him, immersion, this 
" singular and interesting relic of primitive and 
apostolic times 77 is politely discarded in deference 
to the supposed requirements of the age in which 

1 History of the Eastern Church, p. 117. 

2 Christian Mirror, April 16, 1S79. 

3 Sinai and Palestine, p. 307. 

A Article on Baptism, in Nineteenth Century for Oct. 1879. 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 157 

we live and the circumstances by which we are sur- 
rounded ; an illustration, adds Stanley, showing " how 
the spirit which lives and moves in human society 
can override even the most sacred ordinances." It 
is this position in reference to baptism, which just 
now, as Baptists, we are compelled to meet. Indeed, 
for the most part, from the other positions which 
have been taken — like the one to which we have 
already referred, that immersion was not primitive 
baptism — those who have defended them have one 
after another quietly withdrawn. But we are per- 
suaded that this position is as indefensible as the 
others, and purpose in this discourse accordingly to 
present the grounds for our belief that immersion is 
essential to Christian baptism. 

1. And first, we say, immersion alone meets the 
requirements of the divine command. When the 
Saviour said to his disciples, " Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations, immersing them," we have every 
reason to believe that he meant just what he said. 
But the objection will be urged, That is your inter- 
pretation of the Saviour's words. Not at all. It is 
not an interpretation, but a translation. The word 
which we find in the Great Commission, and which is 
used throughout the New Testament wherever men- 
tion is made of baptism, is baptizcin, and the evi- 
dence is abundant and conclusive that this word, 
which we say means to immerse, to submerge, lias this 
signification, and this signification only. Xot a pas- 



158 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sage has been found, in sacred or profane literature, 
in which baptizein means either to sprinkle or to pour. 

Its place in the Greek language is precisely that of 
the verb to immerse, in our own language. We cannot, 
of course, give this evidence here, but it will be found 
in Conant's " Meaning and Use of Baptizein," which 
is " an exhaustive examination of examples of the 
lexical and grammatical use of the word, drawn 
from writers in almost every department of litera- 
ture and science," belonging to different countries, 
and living in different ages of the world's history. 

But we shall be told that the Greek-English Lexi- 
con of Liddell and Scott, which is in use in all of 
our classical schools and colleges, defines baptizein 
to dip repeatedly, dip under, to bathe, to wet, to pour 
upon, drench, to dip a vessel, to draw water. This is 
true of their first edition. Under what influences 
some of these words were introduced into that edi- 
tion we cannot say. But their introduction was 
challenged — challenged, too, by scholars not Bap- 
tists — on the ground that the passages cited in sup- 
port of these definitions could not be forced to yield 
such a support ; and in the second edition the words 
to steep, wet, pour upon, drench, were omitted as with- 
out authority, and have never reappeared. But the 
second edition of Liddell and Scott retained the 
definition to dip repeatedly, and the question has been 
asked by partisan objectors, " Do our Baptist friends 
practice immersion in accordance with this defini- 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 159 

tioii?" It happens that Liddell and Scott have 
found it necessary to continue the work of revision, 
and in the sixth London edition of their Lexicon — 
which is the last, instead of to dip repeatedly we have 
to dip in or under ivater, while to the definition to 
draw, for example to draio wine from bowls in cups, 
they have added in parenthesis, as if to prevent all 
possible misapprehension or misrepresentation, the 
significant words, " of course by dipping them." The 
history of these changes in the definition of baptizein 
in the successive editions of this standard lexicon 
is a very significant one, and furnishes the most 
striking proof of the correctness of the conclusions 
reached by Dr. Conant in his learned and exhaustive 
work. 

But it may be said that this is the classical use of 
the word — that many words in common use among 
the Greeks were taken up by the sacred writers, 
who gave to them a signification which they did not 
have before. So far as baptizein is concerned the 
statement cannot be sustained. One of the first 
Greek scholars in this country is Prof. E. A. Soph- 
ocles of Harvard University. He is a Greek by 
birth, and is familiar with the use of baptizein by 
classic and sacred writers. In his Greek Lexicon of 
the Roman and Byzantine Periods, he says: "There 
is no evidence that. Luke and Paul, and the other 
writers of the Xew Testament, put upon this verb 
meanings not recognized by the Greeks." 



160 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

And with him agree the best New Testament lexi- 
cographers of our day. Wilke's Lexicon of Neiv 
Testament Greek, revised and edited by C. L. W. 
Grimm, 1868, and now in process of translation by 
Prof. J. Henry Thayer, of Andover Theological 
Seminary, defines baptizein, 1, to immerse repeatedly^ 
to immerse, to submerge ; 2, to bathe, lave, cleanse with 
water by immersion or submersion. 

Cremer, in his Biblico- Theological Lexicon of the 
New Testament Greek, defines baptizein, to immerse, 
submerge, and adds that the New Testament use of 
the word denotes " immersion, submersion for a 
religious purpose." 

And with these lexicographers agree the most 
prominent exegetical scholars of every name, — Tho- 
luck, Meyer, DeWette, Olshausen, Lange, Fritsche, 
Lightfoot, Ellicott, Plumptre, Godet, and a host of 
others. Of even the passage in Mark vii. 4, where, 
by so many controversialists, it has been maintained 
that baptizein cannot mean to immerse, Meyer, in his 
Critical and Exegetical Commentary, says : " Except 
they wash is not to be understood of washing the 
hands, but of immersion, which the word in classic 
Greek and in the New Testament everywhere means, 
i. e. here, according to the context, to take a bath." 

There can be only one meaning, therefore, to the 
command, " Be baptized." With the N ew Testament 
records lying open before us, it is worse than vain 
to suggest such frivolous objections as the impossi- 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 1G1 

bility of immersing three thousand converts on the 
day of Pentecost ; the insufficiency of water in Jeru- 
salem for the immersion of such a multitude ; and 
other objections even less worthy of notice. The 
Saviour commanded the apostles to immerse those 
who should believe on Him through their word; and 
the several writers tell us that they obeyed the 
divine injunction. They seem never to have asked 
whether under any circumstances something less 
than immersion would not answer. They evidently 
deemed it enough that Christ had fixed the solemn 
rite, and they insisted upon immersion as alone ful- 
filling the words of the Saviour, " Teaching them to 
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded 
you." It will be remembered that Jesus at his bap- 
tism by John, in Jordan, said, u Suffer it to be so 
now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteous- 
ness." ( Matt. iii. 15 ), that is, as Meyer interprets the 
words, " all which as duty it is obligatory on us to 
do." But there is a duty in this matter which rests 
upon the disciple as well as upon his Lord, and that 
duty is made plain. It was in obedience to the 
Saviour's words, " Go ye therefore, and teach all 
nations, immersing them," that Peter, on the day of 
Pentecost, exclaimed, "Repent and be immersed." 
It is in obedience to the same injunction that as 
Baptists we insist on immersion as essential to 
Christian baptism. Immersion alone meets the 
requirements of the divine command. 
11 



162 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

II. But again, immersion is essential to Christian 
baptism in order to preserve the symbolical signifi- 
cation of the ordinance as presented in the New 
Testament. 

1. In the first place baptism is there referred to as 
a symbol of the believer's purification from the 
defilement of sin. When the devout Ananias came 
to Saul at Damascus with the divine message that 
God had chosen him to be his witness unto all men 
of what he had seen and heard, Ananias added, 
" And now why tarriest thou ? Arise and wash away 
thy sins." (Acts xxii. 16). The thought is precisely 
that of Peter on the day of Pentecost, when he 
said, " Eepent and be baptized every one of you in 
the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins." 
This is not baptismal regeneration. As the Scrip- 
tures plainly show, we are not saved in or by bap- 
tism. But sin is a defilement, and the removal of 
this moral uncleanness is secured by repentance 
and faith, which are the conditions of salvation. 
But how is this great doctrine of the New Testa- 
ment symbolical t By baptism, that is by immersion. 
The so-called Epistle of Barnabas, which is believed 
to have been written before A. D. 119, the date to 
which it is commonly assigned, says : " We go down 
into the water full of sins and pollutions, but come 
up out again bringing fresh fruit, having in our heart 
the fear and hope which are in Jesus by the Spirit." 
How expressive, then, the command, " Wash away 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 163 

thy sins," and what else except immersion, especially 
to a Jew, could fittingly symbolize the great truth to 
which this command has reference ! Says Maimon- 
ides, a Jewish writer, " Wherever, in the Law, wash- 
ing of the flesh or of the clothes is mentioned, it 
means nothing else than the dipping of the whole 
body in a laver: for if any man dip himself all over, 
except the tip of his little finger, he is still in his 
uncleanness." Only immersion, therefore, is the 
proper symbol of this spiritual cleaning, which bap- 
tism expresses. 1 

2. But baptism is also a symbol of the believer's 
death to sin and of his rising to a new life. In his 
Epistle to the Eomans ( vi. 2, 4), Paul says: " Then 
shall we that are dead to sin, live any longer therein ? 
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized 
into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 

l "There was one form of this idea which continued far 
down into the middle ages, long after it had been dissociated 
from baptism, but may be given as an illustration of the same 
idea represented by the same form. The order of knighthood 
in England, of which the banners hang in King Henry the 
Seventh's Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and which is distin- 
guished from all the other orders as the ' most honorable,' is 
called the order of the Bath. Why is this ? It is because in 
the early days of chivalry the Knights, those who were enlisted 
in defence of right against wrong, truth against falsehood, 
honor against dishonor, on the evening before they were 
admitted to the order, were laid in a bath, and thoroughly 
washed, in order to show how bright and pure ought to be the 
lives of those who engage in noble enterprises.*' — Stanley's 
article on Baptism, in Nineteenth Century for Oct., 1879. 



164 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into 
death ; that like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life." 1 A like thought 
Paul expresses in Col. ii. 12. Here also, then, a 
great Scripture truth is presented. The old man 
no longer lives, but is buried, and in his place is 
the new man in Christ Jesus. In baptism, as the 
crowning act of repentance and faith, these two 
facts are symbolically set forth. Buried in the bap- 
tismal waters, the old man with his sinful nature dis- 
appears, but, in the emergence from the watery 
grave, he rises to the new life in Christ. And this 
great truth, immersion, and immersion alone, fitly 
symbolizes. 

3. Baptism is also a symbol of the believer's par- 
ticipation in the death and resurrection of Christ. 
Says Paul in his epistle to the Bomans, vi. 5, " For 
if we have been planted together in the likeness of 
his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his res- 
urrection." That is, as in that most intimate union 
of being, which subsists between the believer and 
his Lord, ours is that moral death to sin in which 
spiritual communion in death with Christ consists, 
so shall we share in the glory of his resurrection. 



1 Says Meyer, in his comment on the passage, the very form 
of the inquiry "presupposes an acquaintance with the moral 
nature of baptism " ; and he adds, " it must in fact have been 
an experimental acquaintance." 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 165 

There is a fellowship of death, and there is a fellow- 
ship of immortality. And of this sublime teaching 
of Scripture, immersion, "in the disappearance 
beneath the water and the emergence from the 
water," is not only the appropriate symbol, but "a 
most expressive one. 

Baptism, then, is something more than a rite, it is 
a symbol which expresses the grandest, sublimest 
truth of our evangelical faith. But let immersion give 
place to sprinkling or pouring, and the symbolical 
significance of this divine ordinance is at once de- 
stroyed. As Stanley says i 1 " It is a greater change 
even than that which the Roman Catholic Church 
has made in administering the Sacrament of the 
Lord's Supper in the bread without the wine. For 
that was a change which did not affect the thing that 
was signified : whereas the change from immersion 
to sprinkling has set aside the larger part of the 
apostolic language regarding baptism." 

By some this is regarded as a matter of slight 
importance. But is it? Who instituted this ordi- 
nance, in which such great truths are so impressively 
set forth? Was it not our King, who just before 
he entered the swiftly flowing stream, addressing 
the hesitating John, exclaimed, " So it becometh us 
to fulfil all righteousness V J As I write these lines, 
on the other side of the globe, in the mountain fast- 
nesses of Afghanistan, English troops are standing 

1 Article on Baptism, in Nineteenth Century for Oct., 1879. 



166 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

in battle array. A sacred silence rests upon the long 
lines — the solemn hush which precedes the deadly 
charge, and now the colors are unfurled. Beauti- 
fully they wave in the soft breeze of the early morn- 
ing. Strong hands grasp the staff. Soon the order 
to advance is given, and the troops are in motion. 
The roar of artillery follows, and then, as the assail- 
ants near the enemy's works, the crack of musketry. 
The color-bearer falls. A comrade seizes the flag, 
and it is borne on with the advancing lines. Again 
and again it falls, but again and again it is caught up 
by those who love it, and are ready to die for it. 
But why this devotion to the flag I Is it not seen 
that it draws from the enemy his deadliest fire ? Let 
it then be furled, or substitute something for it ! It 
is only a symbol! A symbol ? Yes, and because it 
is a symbol, these men reply, we cherish it. It is 
our country's flag, and was placed in our hands by 
our gracious queen as a sacred trust. Nothing else 
can take its place. And on they go. What though 
the ranks are thinned by every successive volley? 
There is something worse than death to such men ; 
and as we follow them with straining eyes, our hearts 
are stirred as in the battle front, dimly seen through 
the smoke of the conflict, moves the flag which they 
faithfully bear. 

So it is with baptism. It is only a symbol, some 
tell us. Yes, but it was committed to our care by 
our heavenly King, with the promise of his presence 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM, 167 

and aid in the conflict in which we are engaged. To 
uphold it courage may at times be required ; but a 
true soldier will have courage. And when the order 
is given, " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
immersing them in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost," he will neither 
furl his flag nor cast it aside ; but with a desire to be 
true to his sovereign, bearing aloft the sacred sym- 
bol of the sacramental host of God's elect, he will 
press forward conquering and to conquer. 

Upon these two facts, therefore, that immeision 
alone meets the requirements of the divine com- 
mand in reference to baptism, and alone preserves 
the symbolical significance attributed to the ordi- 
nance in the new Testament, we rest in maintaining 
our position that immersion is essential to Christian 
baptism. When, therefore, it is said, that there is 
nothing in the original institution or in the nature 
and uses of the rite of baptism " requiring it to be 
administered in one precise mode," it is evident that 
those who use these words have failed to consider 
the testimony which the New Testament furnishes 
in reference to this ordinance. 

What, then, is the answer that is made to facts 
like these which we have now presented? Dean 
Stanley, 1 admitting that there can be no question but 
that the original form of baptism was complete 

l Eastern Church, p. 11. 



168 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

immersion in the deep baptismal waters, and alluding 
to the fact that " To this form the Eastern Church 
still rigidly adheres; and the most illustrious and 
venerable portion of it, that of the Byzantine Empire, 
absolutely repudiates and ignores any other mode 
of administration as essentially invalid," adds : " The 
Latin Church, on the other hand, doubtless in defer- 
ence to the requirements of a northern climate, to 
the change of manners, to the convenience of cus- 
tom, has wholly altered the mode, preferring, as it 
would fairly say, mercy to sacrifice/' And this 
altered mode, introduced by the church of Rome, 
Stanley himself defends as " a wise exercise of 
Christian freedom V and "a striking example of the 
triumph of common sense and convenience over the 
bondage of form and custom." It is defended, on 
the same ground, by its advocates in this country. 
Says the editor of a Congregational journal : 1 " We 
feel warranted by the principles of Christian liberty 
in such cases, while we reverently cherish the ordi- 
nance itself, to consult in its mode of administration 
those considerations of health, of delicacy, and even 
convenience, which seem to us more fitting in the 
times and circumstances in which we live." 

The answer, then, is this: The Saviour indeed 
said, " Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, 
immersing them," but there are considerations of 
health, delicacy and convenience which warrant us 

1 Christian Mirror, April 12, 1S79. 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 169 

in wholly altering the mode. As to the first of these 
considerations there are doubtless, in rare instances, 
those who would gladly obey the divine command 
were they not denied the privilege on account of 
ill-health. Others are prevented by the circum- 
stances in which they find themselves. The dying 
robber on the cross could not be buried with Christ 
in baptism. But Christ does not ask of his disciples 
a service which they cannot render, nor does he 
suggest, in case immersion is impossible, an abridge- 
ment of the rite. Indeed, they certainly make too 
much of baptism, who wholly alter the mode in order 
that in these exceptional cases there may be an 
appearance of conformity to the divine command. 

But what shall be said of the second consideration, 
that immersion is indelicate ? Did it ever occur to 
those who take this position that in so doing they 
impute to the Saviour a lack of wisdom, and even 
of the finer feelings, in instituting a rite, designed 
to be perpetual, which should in any age, and among 
any people, be an offense to the moral sense of those 
who witness it or participate in it J ? 

Equally frivolous, as it seems to us, is the consid- 
eration of convenience which is presented as an 
additional reason for the adoption of a u wholly 
altered mode." Convenience! Certainly immersion 
is no more inconvenient now than in the New Testa- 
ment times ; and yet neither in the Acts nor in the 
Epistles do we anywhere read that the Apostles 



170 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

wholly altered the mode for the sake of convenience t 
Their Master had not said, Go ye therefore, and 
teach all nations, immersing them if it is convenient, 
but immersing them ; and how faithfully they obeyed 
the divine injunction the inspired record clearly 
shows. 

Indeed, the position of those who, on the ground 
of these considerations, discard immersion, is pre- 
cisely that which Kalph Waldo Emerson, a half cen- 
tury ago, took in reference to the Lord's Supper. He 
was pastor of the Second Unitarian Church in Bos- 
ton. In a sermon on the Lord's Supper he said to 
his people : " The use of the elements, however 
suitable to the people and the modes of thought in 
the East where it originated, is foreign and unsuited 

to us Most men find the bread and wine no 

aid to devotion, and to some it is a painful impedi- 
ment." And he added: "This mode of commemo- 
rating Christ is not suitable. That is reason enough 
why I should abandon it. If I believed that it was 
enjoined by Jesus or his disciples, and that he ever 
contemplated making permanent this mode of com- 
memoration, every way agreeable to an Eastern 
mind, and yet, on trial, it was disagreeable to my 
own feelings, I would not adopt it." And so he 
urged the members of his church to abandon the 
ordinance as hitherto observed, and " suggested a 
mode in which a meeting for the same purpose 
might be held free of objection." It is understood 



IMMERSION ESSENTIAL TO BAPTISM. 171 

that his suggestion was that the bread and wine 
should remain on the table at the communion season, 
and as the German philosopher told his students to 
"think the wall," the members of Mr. Emerson's 
church were to think the Lord's Supper. But they 
were unwilling to conform to Mr. Emerson's sug- 
gestion. It seemed to them that this would be an 
unwarrantable violation of the plain commandment 
of the Saviour, " Take, eat -drink ; " " This do in 
remembrance of me ;" and so, rather than yield cher- 
ished convictions of duty, they accepted the pastor's 
resignation, and Mr. Emerson's ministry suddenly 
came to an end. 

That the position of those who discard immersion 
is the same, is evident. In reference to the Lord's 
Supper the command is, " Take, eat." Xo, says 
Emerson, the ordinance is foreign and unsuited to 
us ; indeed it is disagreeable to my feelings. In refer- 
ence to baptism the command is, "Be immersed." 
Xo, reply the advocates of Christian liberty, immer- 
sion is inconvenient, not suited to the times and cir- 
cumstances in which we live, and is an offense to the 
finer feelings of our nature. And so, in place of 
the one baptism, we have another which takes its 
place as a substitute. Surely, when Mr. Emerson 
announced his position in reference to the Lord's 
Supper half a century ago, and the members of the 
church which he served as pastor were willing to let 
him go rather than abandon a plain commandment of 



172 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the Lord, lie could little have imagined that in so 
short a time this very doctrine of Christian liberty 
would be urged even in evangelical circles, in advo- 
cating changes as radical in reference to the ordi- 
nance of baptism as he had recommended in refer- 
ence to the Lord's Supper. 

It is sometimes said that the cry of the Baptists is 
u Water, water ! " Dr. Landels, of London, was 
right, when, at a meeting of the Baptist Union in 
England not long ago, he replied, " No ! The cry of 
the Baptists is not ' Water, water V but ' Obedience, 
obedience ! ? n As a denomination, Christian liberty 
is very dear to us. At a great price, as all men 
know, obtained we this liberty. We glory in it, and 
like our fathers, as we trust, we are ready to die if 
need be in maintaining it. But there are some things 
which are no less sacred to us than Christian liberty, 
and among these we cheerfully give to the com- 
mands of Christ an abiding place. 




ONE OF OUR PRIMITIVE TABERXACLES. 

(The first Baptist Church edifice erected in Missouri. J 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 



"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which 
I say?"— Luke vi. 4G. 

This sermon is devoted to a discussion of the ques- 
tion of Close Communion. In one word, this is our 
plea : 

We ask, for ourselves, the simple liberty to admin- 
ister the ordinances of the Lord's House in such a 
way as our consciences tell us that His Word requires. 

We ask the charity of others that they recognize our 
right to do this, and that they charge our course to 
this motive alone — not to bigotry, uncharitableness, 
or illiberality. We ask no more, and surely there will 
be granted no less, than this. We do not arrogate to 
ourselves a wisdom or piety superior to others ; but, 
" with malice towards none, and charity for all," we 
ask that we be allowed to follow our conscientious 
convictions in all matters pertaining to the Kingdom 
of Heaven. As it is by the Word of God that we are 
to be approved or condemned, we feel bound to fol- 
low that Word just where it leads us. 

173 



174 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Throughout the land there is an outcry against 
Baptists, because of their Close Communion. This is 
because their views and motives are misunderstood. 
There are persons who never will be brought to 
understand the true position of Baptists in this mat- 
ter. Not that the position itself is difficult, or that 
the persons lack the ability to understand, but they do 
not care to understand. The cry of " Close Com- 
munion " is a convenient cudgel with which to pound 
Baptists; and a ringing rally-word with which to 
excite popular passion and prejudice against them. 
To reason with such persons is the idlest of idle 
tasks ; and Baptists may as well make up their minds 
to endure their carping. But we are glad to believe 
that this class is a very small minority, while the 
large majority of their fellow Christians of other 
names honestly and really misunderstand. To those 
who are willing to hear and consider, and who would 
be glad to be relieved of any wrong impressions they 
may have received, these words of explanation and 
argument are addressed. 

Let it be premised that, rightly considered, the 
very fact that the position of the Baptists on the 
question of Communion is one of odium, instead of 
being a ground of rash condemnation, constitutes a 
presumption in its favor, since there must be very 
strong reasons to urge its adoption and mainten- 
ance in the very face of its odiousness. The love 
of approbation is instinctive and very strong. Cen- 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 175 

sure is a thing which men flee. So great is the 
aversion of men to censure, that many will give 
up their principles rather than endure it. To go 
out of their way to incur it, or to expose them- 
selves to its fury when it may as well and as easily 
be avoided, is an unheard-of thing, except among 
fanatics. If a man of probity and intelligence firmly 
set himself in a way that will bring odium upon him, 
and calmly pursue his course despite the scorn and 
condemnation of his neighbors, if it be in a matter 
not beyond his judgment, the probability is that he 
will be found to be not only honest, but right. Such 
was the position of Paul at Antioch, when Peter and 
Barnabas were carried away by the popular current. 
Such we believe to be the position of Baptists upon 
the question of Communion. What a world of pres- 
sure has been brought to bear against their position, 
because of its odiousness. It is unpopular, and so is 
condemned without any attention to its merits. If a 
minister or church has declared for open commun- 
ion, with what laudation has that declaration been 
received. Par and near, it is sounded abroad ; and 
the world is given to know what a burst of applause 
would follow, if all Baptists were to do likewise. Are 
Baptists so unlike all other men, so unnatural, that 
they choose the heritage of shame and condemnation 
without cause ? Or, does not the fact that they have 
calmly withstood opposition and reproach at least 
entitle them to a candid and patient hearing, lest, 



176 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

after all, they may be found to be in the way of the 
true followers of the Nazarene, "the sect everywhere 
spoken against." 

It is freely conceded that the words " Close Com- 
munion" are not found in the Bible. No sane man 
would expect to find them there, when he remembers 
the character of the Apostolic churches, — that they 
were essentially the same, each one being substan- 
tially like every other one. But what we do find in 
the Word of God is this : Certain restrictions thrown 
around the Lord's Supper, which, in the present con- 
dition of the religious world, force upon Baptists 
one of two things, — either to set aside the restrictions 
imposed by the Word of God; or to refuse a free invita- 
tion to the Supper. The former they cannot do with- 
out setting aside the cardinal principle that the 
Scriptures are divinely inspired, and constitute an 
infallible and supreme rule of faith and practice. 
The latter being the only course left to them, they 
have refused to give a free invitation to the supper. 
What is called " Close Communion " is simply the 
practical application of the terms and conditions 
which the Scriptures have imposed upon all who 
would approach the Lord's table. 

What are those terms or conditions ? 

1st. The first is conversion. By this we mean 
that the individual must be, so far as we can judge, 
a true disciple of Jesus Christ, (a) This accords with 
the Commission which Jesus gave to his Apostles. 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 177 

"All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 
Go ye, therefore, and teach [disciple] all nations." 
Matt, xxviii., 18, 19. (6) It accords also with the 
practice of the Apostles under that Commission. On 
the day of Pentecost Peter preached Jesus to the 
multitudes gathered together in Jerusalem. The first 
marked effect of his discourse is recorded in these 
words : " They were pricked in their hearts." When 
they cried out, "What shall we do?" he bade them 
repent. A little further on we are told that thousands 
of them " gladly received his word." Acts ii. 37, 41. 
To gladly receive his word about Jesus is the same 
as to receive Jesus himself. Now we are told that 
to receive Jesus is to '' to believe on his name." "He 
came unto his own [the Jews] but his own received 
him not. But to as many as received him, to them 
gave he power [right or privilege] to become the 
sons of God, even to them that believe on his name." 
John i. 11, 12. Those Pentecos.tal converts then, were 
penitent believers. The true character of the penitent 
believers is still further developed in that they are 
declared to be the sons of God, and the subjects of a 
divine and spiritual birth. " Which were born not 
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will 
of man, but of God. John i. 13. Or, in ordinary par- 
lance, we say that they were converted. This propo- 
sition might be very much enlarged upon, but the 
reader is invited to examine the New Testament for 
himself; and to note particularly the character of 

.12 



178 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the apostolic churches, as described in the epistles 
addressed to them. Let only one example be cited : 
" Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ * * * * to the 
saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful [the 
believers] in Christ Jesus. Eph. i. 1. 

2d. The Bible teaches that a second qualification 
for the Lord's Supper is baptism, (a) Again, we 
find that this accords with the Commission. " Go ye, 
therefore, and teach [disciple] all nations, baptizing 
them," etc. Matt, xxviii. 19. ( b ) Again, it accords 
with the practice of the Apostles under the Com- 
mission. " Then they that gladly received his word 
were baptized. 1 '' Acts ii. 41. So also it is the faith and 
practice of the various denominations of Christians 
to give the supper to the baptized only. 

What constitutes the act of baptism, I will not 
discuss here. Only this much in general : If, in this 
controversy about the act of baptism, Baptists stood 
alone, with the whole world against them, they might 
well distrust the strength and correctness of their 
views and practice. If, for example, classical schol- 
ars, who have no interest in the baptismal con- 
troversy, said, with united voices, that the word 
baptize, in its various uses, never involved the idea 
of immersion ; if the modern Greeks, who speak a 
modified form of the ancient language, said the same 
thing ; if the leading church historians said that, as a 
matter of fact, sprinkling was the primitive practice, 
and they could point to the time when immersion 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 179 

was first introduced, and detail the causes and cir- 
cumstances which led to the change; if the charac- 
ter of the references to the rite found in the New 
Testament was incompatible with immersion, and 
perfectly accordant with sprinkling; if, in addition to 
all this, hosts of the most learned and pious Baptist 
leaders had arisen, who said that we were mistaken 
in our assumptions, incorrect in our statements, and 
that we had departed from the primitive practice, — 
if all these things were so, I should admit at once 
that the presumption that we were wrong amounted 
to almost a demonstration. But this is the case with 
those who practice sprinkling or pouring. The inde- 
pendent classical scholars of the world, ancient and 
modern, I suppose were never more united on the 
meaning of any word than this, and that it means 
immersion. The modern Greeks say the same thing. 
Ecclesiastical historians not only tell us that immer- 
sion was the primitive practice, but they point to the 
time when sprinkling was introduced, and detail the 
causes and circumstances that led to the change. 
The references to the rite in the New Testament are 
incompatible with the idea of sprinkling, andsuitable 
to immersion. a And, in addition to all this, hosts of 
the most learned and pious scholars of those denom- 
inations that practice sprinkling, conspicuously 
Luther, Calvin, Wesley, etc., tell us plainly that 

l See remarks of Dean Stanley, quoted on pages 94, 156 
and 228-30.— Ed. 



180 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

there lias been a change of the ordinance, and that 
immersion was the primitive practice. 

With regard to the subject of baptism, we are con- 
tent to say but little. Yet we say that the New Tes- 
tament affords neither precept nor example for any 
baptism, except the baptism of the believer. Like the 
sprinkling of adults, the sprinkling of infants had its 
origin in the idea that baptism washes away original 
sin, and that the only safety for the child dying in 
infancy is the water of baptism. In other words, the 
practice of sprinkling infants had its origin in the 
mischievous dogma of baptismal regeneration. 1 Apart 
from this, I think that it is quite impossible to give 
any satisfactory reason for the practice of infant 
baptism. Its strongest defense is tradition. But 
such a defense is against the corner-stone of Protest- 
antism, — that the Bible, and not tradition, is the 
religion of Protestants ; that the Holy Scriptures are 
our guide in all matters of faith and practice. This 
is the great battle-ground between Protestants and 
Catholics, and nothing is more common than for 

l These words were written before the publication of Dean 
Stanley's now famous article on Baptism. Had I possessed the 
power to summon a witness from the rank of Pedobaptists, I 
could not have selected a better one than the Dean of West- 
minster. And had I possessed the authority to dictate the 
words that he would utter, I could not have made so complete 
a defence of the truth of the above statement as to the origin 
and spread of infant baptism. If he has not, the reader is 
urged to read the Dean's article. 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 181 

Catholics to twit Pedobaptist Protestants with their 
inconsistency in this particular. "You reject tradi- 
tion, and yet you retain infant baptism." 

3d. A third qualification for the Lord's Supper is 
church membership. Concerning these Pentecostal 
converts, we read, " Then they that gladly received 
his word were baptized, and the same day there were 
added unto them about three thousand souls." Acts 
ii. 41. Added unto whom ? The ellipsis is supplied 
in verse 47. "And the Lord added to the church daily 
such as should be saved." Now, concerning those 
baptized converts that had been added to the church, 
we read, "And they continued steadfastly in the 
Apostle's doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread and prayers." Acts ii. 42. The Scriptures 
teach further that the Supper is not an individual, or 
social, or family ordinance, but a church ordinance. 
One of the main points of the Apostle's earnest 
admonitions in I. Cor., xi., is that the Supper is not 
a social ordinance, in which a few might join as a 
social repast, but that they should wait one for 
another; and with the whole church assembled, they 
should partake of the Supper. Again, he declares, 
"For we being many, are one bread and one body; 
for we are all partakers of that one bread." I. Cor. 
x. 17. In accordance with this, the disciples at Troas 
came together on the first day of the week to break 
bread. Acts xx. 7. Though there is no specific men- 
tion of a church being established at TroaSj as this 



182 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

was the third time Paul had visited that city, and as 
he himself tells us that a door was opened to him 
of the Lord, the presumption is that a church had 
been established there. This is the opinion of Cony- 
beare and Howson. Besides, to omit the mention of 
such a fact is not uncommon in Acts. If, in opposi- 
tion to this, it should be urged that the Supper was 
observed from house to house, and was, perhaps, a 
social Christian ordinance rather than a church ordi- 
nance, — the reply is ready. The writer of the Acts 
seems to be careful to keep up the idea of the disci- 
ples as one company. "And all that believed were 
together, and they [all that believed] continuing 
daily with one accord in the temple and in breaking 
bread from house to house," etc. Acts ii. 44-46. 
Besides, the idea is not that of going from house to 
house, but, as Olshausen says, "The stress is to be 
laid upon the opposition between ev rco hpco and xaz y 
oaov." They worshipped daily in the Temple; they broke 
bread in private, or, as the marginal renders it, at home. 
From these Scriptures it appears that the Lord's 
Supper is a church ordinance ; that it is also an 
expressive symbol of church fellowship ; and that it 
is to be shared by those who are truly united in 
church relation. The New Testament says nothing 
of the intercommunion of churches ; but it seems 
reasonable to infer that there may be consistent 
intercommunion between those churches whose doc- 
trine and order so agree that membership in the one 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 183 

church may justly entitle an individual to membership 
in the others; but between such churches only. 

Let us now see how these qualifications for the 
Supper, which are of the nature of restrictions 
thrown around it, force upon Baptists the practice of 
Close Communion. 

Since conversion is an indispensable qualification 
in the Scriptural communicant, Baptists are com- 
pelled to refuse an invitation to all those who deny 
or practically ignore conversion as such a qualifica- 
tion ; or they must, with their own hand, remove the 
restriction which the Lord has imposed. They have 
no right to do the latter, and so are compelled to do 
the former. It is absolutely painful to consider how 
large a part of the professed Christian world this 
excludes. But if the reader will cast about him and 
discover who it is that demands a credible profession 
of faith in Christ, as a condition of church mem- 
bership, or of participation at the Lord's table, he 
will also discover that nine-tenths of the Christian 
world are excluded by this simple but unspeakably 
important test. 

Again, since we believe that baptism is a qualifica- 
tion of the communicant, and that immersion alone 
is baptism, how can we consistently invite one who 
has not been baptized [immersed] ? We do not 
admit to the Table persons whom we ourselves have 
received for church membership, until they have been 
baptized. It not unfrequntly happens that persons 



184 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

are received for membership in Baptist churches ; 
but before they are baptized the church observes 
the Lord's Supper. Yet these persons are not invited 
to partake, because they have not been baptized. 
How can we consistently admit others who have not 
been baptized? Shall we so discriminate against 
our own members'? Does not the same Scripture 
which compels us to withhold the Supper from those 
who have signified their wish to join our churches, 
because they are unbaptized, compel us to withhold 
it from all others who are unbaptized % We do not 
admit those who have been sprinkled to membership 
in our churches without baptism ; neither can we 
admit them to the Lord's Table without baptism. 
Now is the one practice any more rigid or exclusive 
than the other? We may as consistently admit the 
unbaptized to our churches as to the Lord's Table. 
Particularly does this appear when we remember 
that the Supper is a church ordinance. 

Again, if baptism is a scriptural qualification of the 
communicant, and is scripturally administered to the 
believer only, how can Baptists, unless they set aside 
the teaching of the Scriptures, invite one who was 
only sprinkled in his infancy ? and who cannot claim 
that even that was done as the prompting of his own 
desire and choice, but wholly at the dictation of 
another. How can they receive tbe sprinkling of an 
unconscious babe as a substitute for the voluntary 
immersion of a conscious believer in Jesus Christ? 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 185 

This brings to the surface the fact that the real dif- 
ference between Baptists and Pedobaptists is not one 
of Communion at all, but of baptism. And for our 
Pedobaptist brethren to cry out "Close Communion" 
is not only wide of the mark, but is ignoring the real 
issue. As has been said the thousandth time, per- 
haps, " It is close baptism. 7 ' They will not give the 
Supper to the unbaptized. We say no more than that. 
So the question between them and us is, "What is 
baptism V Until it is shown that something else than 
immersion is baptism, to upbraid Baptists for not 
inviting them to the table is to upbraid them for what 
they will not do themselves — commune with those 
whom they consider unbaptized. Is it not plain that 
in the present condition of the religious world the 
practice of "Close Communion" is the practical appli- 
cation of the restrictions which the Word of God 
has thrown around the Lord's Table ? If Baptists are 
wrong anywhere, it is in the principles which they 
have drawn from the Word of God ; mot in the prac- 
tical application of those principles in the adminis- 
tration of the Supper. If their principles are wrong, 
they should abandon them, by all means. If their 
principles are of little worth, why, let them go along 
with their failure to practice them. But if their prin- 
ciples are right and important, let them have the 
manliness and fidelity to stand by them, and God and 
good men will approve their course. In these days of 
religious latitudinarianism, when, under the cloak of 



186 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

charity, men are crying down creeds and formulas 
of faith, and calling upon their fellow Christians to 
give up, or submerge from view, this or that Bible 
doctine, that all the Lord's people may appear to be 
one, is it not worth while that Baptists should stand 
firm, as the representatives of the grander principle 
that the Word of God is the supreme rule of life ; that 
to do just what God says is of far greater importance 
than the exercise of a charity that vaunts itself over 
the Bible, while professing to reverence and love it ? 
To maintain such a position as this at this present 
time is of the greatest moral value to the world, to 
say nothing of the sacrifice of principle and con- 
science involved in yielding their position. 

Objections. — There are many plausible objec- 
tions to Close Communion, which are persistently 
thrust forward with a skill and energy " worthy of a 
better cause." These have been answered over and 
over again; but as the thoughts of men are particularly 
occupied with the objections to Close Communion, 
rather than with its true meaning and significance, 
there is no alternative but to expose their unsound- 
ness once more. The strongest objections will be 
selected and their full force given to them. 

First.—" It is the Lord's Table ; you have no right 
to prevent the Lord's people from approaching it." 

It is strange to see how differently different minds 
will reason and conclude from the same premises. 
To my mind it appears that, because it is the Lord's 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 187 

Table, is the greatest of all reasons why we have no 
voice in the matter one way or another, to say who 
shall, or who shall not come to it. We can afford to 
be generous with what belongs to us, but with what 
belongs to another, we have no right to do anything 
at all, save what he has directed. If the Table were 
ours we might have some discretion as to what we 
would do with it. Or, if the Table were the Lord's, 
but he had left the administration of it to our choice, 
still we might have some discretion about it. But 
the Table is the Lord's, and he has left the direc- 
tions for the administration of it in the New Testa- 
ment, and we must do as he has said, or prove 
recreant to our trust. I agree with those who urge 
this objection, that the Table is the Lord's. "There- 
fore,' 7 say they, " it should be open to all." My mind 
works in the exactly opposite direction. The Table 
is the Lord's ; therefore, I have no voice in the mat- 
ter at all, except to follow the directions he himself 
has given us. The reader can decide which conclu- 
sion is right. 

Moreover, a fallacy lurks under this specious plea 
in that it asserts what no recognized body of Chris- 
tians, believes, — that no other qualification is neces- 
sary but conversion; whereas it is almost universally 
conceded that baptism is a qualification for the Sup- 
per. The objection properly stated would be this : 
" It is the Lord's Table ; you have no right to prevent 
the Lord's baptized people from approaching it." 



188 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

The objection thus stated (and it covers a fallacy 
when not thus stated), carries its own answer along 
with it; for it clearly implies that the Lord's unbap- 
tized people have not the Scriptural qualifications 
for the Supper. 

Second. — " The Scriptures say : ' Let a man exam- 
ine himself;' from which it is inferred that, if he is 
satisfied with his own fitness and right to the Sup- 
per, we have no right to interpose a barrier." 

The fallacy of the objection becomes apparent 
when we remember that altogether a different state 
of things exists among us to-day, from what existed 
when Paul penned these words. We have a score 
of different sects, each claiming to be the Church of 
Christ, and this language is so interpreted as to make 
it mean that if the members of one of these sects 
are satisfied with their fitness and right to the Supper, 
that that entitles them to admission to the Supper, 
whensoever and by whomsoever spread. Accord- 
ing to this we may have intercommunion not only of 
Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Congre- 
gationalists, Reformers and Baptists, but of Catho- 
lics, Unitarians, Universalists, &c, &c; because, 
according to his own examination of himself, each 
one is satisfied with his right to the Table. But who, 
among evangelical Christians, believes in carrying 
intercommunion that far? Nobody! And so it turns 
out that the objection is not believed by the very 
ones even in whose mouths it is formed! 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 189 

Besides, let it be remembered that this language 
was not addressed to a score of sects, for the pur- 
pose of leaving the question of fitness for the Sup- 
per to the individual determination of each, as the 
objection supposes; but it was addressed to the 
members of one church, (Corinth), and was designed 
to prevent the very thing which this objection 
tacitly sanctions. At Corinth, the Supper had been 
greatly abused, and the source of this abuse was the 
idea that each might act for himself. Against this 
Paul protests. Hear what he says : " Wherefore, 
whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup 
of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body 
and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine him- 
self, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of 
that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworth- 
ily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not 
discerning the Lord's body. For this cause many 
are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep, 
[have died]." Instead of sanctioning loose com- 
munion, this language enjoins carefulness, strict- 
ness ; and instead of leaving each individual merely 
to be satisfied with himself, it expressly commands 
him to examine himself lest he be guilty of a viola- 
tion of the ordinance, and so bring condemnation, 
and perhaps sickness and death. [See Hodge in 
loc] 

But passing all this by, is it pretended by those 
who urge this objection that the right of individual 



190 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

judgment, flowing from individual self-examination, 
shall supersede the right of judgment by the whole 
collective body of the church? Certainly not, I 
suppose. Then, if not, suppose there should be a 
conflict between the judgment of an individual as to 
his fitness, and the judgment of the church, which 
should yield? Does Jesus Christ expect nothing of 
his churches, and everything of individuals % Should 
an individual override the conscience of the whole 
church ? May a church seek refuge from the respon- 
sibility of having tolerated a known violation of the 
requirements of the Divine Word under the plea 
that every man must judge for himself? The answer 
is, When the requirements of the law are made 
known, churches are responsible for themselves, as 
well as an individual for himself. And it is as 
unmanly and as unfaithful in a church, as in an indi- 
vidual, to try to shirk the responsibility or perform- 
ance of a delicate and unpleasant duty. The Lord's 
Supper is a church ordinance, and the laws govern- 
ing that ordinance have been plainly revealed ; and 
it is the duty of an individual to examine himself, 
and so eat and drink ; and it is the duty of the church 
to enforce the laws which have been left to her to 
administer. In I. Cor. v. 11, this duty of the church 
is distinctly urged and commanded : " But now I 
have written unto you not to keep company if any 
man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or 
covetous, or an idolater, or a drunkard, or an extor- 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 191 

tioner ; with such an one no not to eat." This means 
u not to eat at the same table with such : whether at 
the love feasts ( Agap?e ) or in private intercourse, 
much more at the Lord's table/ 1 1 ( Fausset Com, in loc.) 
That the communicant should be a converted man, a 
baptized man, a church member, is as plainly declared 
in the Scriptures as that he should be a moral man 
and just in his deportment. If it is the province and 
duty of the church to judge the communicant as to 
his possession of a part of these Scriptural qualifi- 
cations, and the apostle distinctly asserts that it is, 
no less can it be the province and duty of the church 
to judge the communicant as to his possession of all 
the Scriptural qualifications. And if the church has 
not this right, aye, if this duty does not solemnly 
rest upon her, then the Lord's Table is a prey to 
designing men, and the church herself is impotent 
to determine or preserve her own character. 

Third — Another common objection which we hear 
is this : I do not believe that it is right to separate 
Christian people. I think they ought to meet 
together at the Lord's Table. 

1. It is difficult to see the consistency of the out- 
cry against Close Communion, while separation into 
different denominations is at once tolerated and jus- 
tified. If the Lord's people can consistently come 
together at the Lord's Table, what reason is there 
for their living in and maintaining separate Church 

i Italics mine. 



192 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

establishments ? If their differences should not 
keep them apart at the Lord's Table, why should 
they anywhere % To say that there may be consis- 
tent intercommunion between the different sects is 
to brand them as being so many schismatics. Upon 
the basis of the consistency of intercommunion, one 
of the greatest sins of the Christian world is its 
division into so many sects ; because there can be no 
consistent intercommunion except between those 
churches whose views of divine truth are so accord- 
ant that membership in the one may justly entitle 
an individual to membership in the other. But for 
two such bodies to live apart is not only schism, but 
it is a wicked consumption of talent and wealth 
which might otherwise be employed in the evangel- 
ization of the world. 

But if the diverse denominationalism of the Chris- 
tian world is not a rank and crying sin, intercommu- 
nion is a sham, all the worse that it wears the cloak 
of piety and love. And such a sham it is when two 
persons sit down side by side at the Lord's Table, 
while in their hearts there is a lack of Christian con- 
fidence and fellowship, and so a betrayal of their 
honest convictions, and a moral cowardice that 
shrinks from the responsibility of standing by one's 
principles. 1 

i If any one has no principles which would be so violated, his 
feelings and opinions cannot form a rule of conduct for one 
who has such principles. 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 193 

2. This objection seems to overlook the fact that 
Christians are already separated, and that independ- 
ently of the Table, But for this separation, whether 
at the Table, or elsewhere, we allege that Baptists are 
not responsible. Let us look at separation at the 
Table. It has already been seen that the question 
between the bulk of the religious world and Baptists 
is not one of communion at all, but of baptism. Now 
there is a common ground between them, upon which 
they may meet and compose their differences, and 
that ground is the validity of immersion. Those who 
practice otherwise admit the validity of immersion, 
for they accept it without hesitation, and occasionally 
practice it. But they say that another act will suf- 
fice, and, as more convenient and popular, they pre- 
fer it. Baptists cannot see it in this light. It 
appears to them that immersion alone is baptism; 
that to speak of baptism by sprinkling is as much a 
solecism as to speak of running by crawling. Oth- 
ers can conscientiously practice immersion ; Baptists 
can not conscientiously practice sprinkling. Which 
should yield 1 Should conscience yield to conven- 
ience, or convenience yield to conscience ? Should 
principle yield to preference, or preference to 
principle ? Now, as a Baptist, I am frank and bold 
to say that, if our positions were reversed, I would 
gladly yield to them. If we believed that either 
immersion or sprinkling was valid, and they could 
not conscientiously accept immersion, but sprinkling 

13 



194 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

only, we would cheerfully relinquish our preference 
for immersion as the more beautiful and expressive 
rite, and practice sprinkling. Not for a moment 
would we allow our convenience and preference to 
weigh in the balances against their conscience and 
principle ; but instantly they should be relinquished, 
that we might strike hands in fellowship and love 
upon this question. But while our brethren are in 
this position to yield without the sacrifice of principle, 
we are not. Which of us is the more responsible for 
the separation? By just as much as conscience 
should be above convenience, as principle should be 
above preference, by just so much does the respon- 
sibility of the separation not rest upon Baptists. 

Fourth. — It is objected that Baptists make too 
much of baptism. It is not a saving ordinance ; why 
make such an ado about it ? 

If we were disposed to retort, we might say that 
the charge comes with bad grace from those who 
practice sprinkling or pouring; since it was the 
belief that baptism is a saving ordinance that first 
led to the change in the primitive practice, in such 
eases as the sick, when baptism was deemed imprac- 
ticable and dangerous. Yet that they might not die 
without the regenerating fluid, in such cases sprink- 
ling or pouring was substituted for baptism. Bap. 
tists have neither unduly exalted nor debased the 
ordinance of baptism. They keep it just where the 
Master put it. The same with the Supper. They do 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 195 

not seek to exalt the Supper above baptism. Both 
are divine ordinances, and were established by the 
same lips. The Master placed one at the entrance 
of the church, the other within the church. No one 
has the right to run over the one ordinance, baptism, 
to get to the other, the Table. All the commands 
of Jesus are full of power, sweetness and beauty. 
Obedience is the test of love, in small matters as well 
as great. A command to pick up a pin is as sure a 
test of love as a command to put out a fire that is 
burning down a house, — perhaps a surer one. To 
put out the fire is of so great importance that it 
would be done without a command; whereas, the 
command to pick up a pin carries with it no reason 
for obedience save that it is commanded. 

But underlying this question about baptism is one 
that is not of minor importance, — the Headship of 
Christ. If Christ ordained immersion, have we any 
right to change it ? The Catholic Church says, " Yes ; 
and we have done it." Calvin says on Acts viii. 38: 
"They went down into the water. Here we see the rite 
used among the men of old time in baptism ; for they 
put all the body into the water. Now the use is this, 
that the minister doth sprinkle the body or the head. 
* * * * It is certain that we want nothing which 
maketh to the substance of baptism. Wherefore the 
church did grant liberty to herself since the begin- 
ning to change the rites somewhat excepting the sub- 
stance." (Edinburg : by Calvin Translation Society, 



196 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

quoted by Jeter,) But if we claim the right to change 
what Christ has ordained, where will the matter end? 
Where has it landed the Catholic Church, which arro- 
gates to herself the right to change the laws of Christ? 
Look at her to-day and contrast her with the teach- 
ings of God's word, and let that be our answer. 

Jesus Christ is the head of the Church and the 
King in Zion, and among the last words which he 
caused to be spoken is a curse upon him who should 
"add to" or "take away from the words of the book." 
Rather let my hand or tongue be palsied than do or 
attempt such a thing. 

Conclusion — We conclude as we began. Baptists 
simply ask for themselves the liberty to administer the 
ordinance of the Lord's House in such a way as their 
consciences tell them that His Word requires. They 
ask their fellow Christians of other names to recog- 
nize their right to do this, and charge their course to 
this motive alone, not to prejudice, bigotry, unchar- 
itableness, or an affectation of a superior piety or 
wisdom. The practice of Close Communion is the 
logical result of the principles which they have 
learned from the Scriptures. If they are wrong, either 
in the principles themselves, or in their practical 
application, we think they have the candor and man- 
liness to acknowledge the wrong, when it is pointed 
out to them. On a question like this, argument is 
more agreeable to them, and more becoming those 
who differ from them, than harsh words and bitter 



CLOSE COMMUNION. 197 

upbraidings. They desire to live on terms of broth- 
erly kindness with all Christian people. They do not 
shrink from criticism and investigation. They would 
be glad to have the world study their principles in 
the light of God's Word, and will cheerfully abide 
the result. 

To my Baptist brethren I say, we should remember 
that we have naught to gain, but everything to lose by 
compromising the principles which we hold. Should 
fidelity to God's Word lead us to separation from 
those we love as well as our own lives, we should 
still be firm ; remembering that true love to Jesus, as 
well as to our friends, should lead us to stand firmly 
by the truth. Baptists have accomplished a noble 
work for the world. We do not believe that their 
mission is ended. Our fathers suffered imprison- 
ment, stripes, banishment, death, that they might 
bequeath to us the rich legacy which we enjoy. Shall 
we barter that legacy for popular applause t The 
early Christians were the " sect everywhere spoken 
against." Our Master bore suffering and shame for 
us. If our principles bring reproach upon us, let us 
bear that reproach. Let us be careful to avoid bit- 
terness and unholy strife. Let our lives abound in 
patience, forbearance, gentleness, goodness and 
truth, while we commit ourselves, not to men, but to 
God, who judgeth righteously. 



BAPTIST CHUKCHES APOSTOLICAL. 

BY PROF. ALBERT H. NEWMAN, ROCHESTER THEO- 
LOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK. 



"If ye love me, keep my commandments." John xiv. 15. 

" Teach them to observe all things whatsoever I have com- 
manded you ; and lo ! I am with you alway, even unto the 
end of the world." Matt, xxviii. 20. 

" Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 

II. Cor. iii. 17. 

The aim of the present discourse will be to show 
that Baptist churches are Apostolical, alike in spirit 
and in form ; and that Baptist churches alone of all 
the churches are Apostolical in spirit and in form. 

We shall attempt to show, furthermore, that the 
formal elements of Apostolical and Baptist churches 
constitute the expression, and by far the best expres- 
sion, within the knowledge of man, of the spirit of 
Christianity. 

That Baptist churches are coincident in form with 
Apostolic churches we shall find no difficulty in 
proving, for the testimony of Scripture and that of 
scholars of all leading denominations of Christians 
is ample and clear. The fact that Baptist churches 
alone consistently adhere to the New Testament as 
an absolute and complete guide, in matters of prac- 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 109 

tice as well as in matters of doctrine, is freely and 
heartily admitted by many of the ablest defenders of 
other systems. 

That Baptists hold to Apostolical forms in Apos- 
tolical spirit, and that Apostolical and Baptist church 
order best expresses for all ages the spirit of Chris- 
tianity, would be denied by the great majority of the 
scholars of other denominations than Baptists, — 
even by men who admit that the teaching of the New 
Testament is final in matters of doctrine. 

We may best accomplish our purpose by sketch- 
ing first, the essential features of the Apostolical 
churches as set forth in the New Testament, as inter- 
preted by scholars of various denominations and 
as understood by ourselves ; and afterwards, the 
essential features of Baptist churches as they are 
observed in the history and the actual state of 
Baptist churches. 

I. The Essential Features of the Apostol- 
ical Churches. 

We freely admit at the outset that in many minor 
matters of form the Baptists differ from the first 
Christians. Such points of difference, alike in matters 
superadded and in matters omitted, will be consid- 
ered hereafter. We may further observe that oar 
brethren of other denominations, while admitting 
the correctness of our specifications of character- 
istics of the Apostolical churches, would probably 
deny these characteristics of them to be essential. 



200 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

1. The most fundamental thing in the Apostolical 
churches was their ascription of absolute lordship 
to Jesus Christ. The expression " our Lord Jesus 
Christ," and expressions of like import, constantly 
meet us throughout the £Tew Testament writings. 
And in the mouths of the first Christians these 
words meant something, — more, alas ! than they com- 
monly mean with us. The chief question with those 
early disciples was, " Lord, what wilt thou have me 
to do?" The Apostles, under the special inspiration 
of the Holy Spirit, preached not themselves " but 
Jesus Christ, as Lord." Whatever they did by way 
of giving form to the outward expression of Chris- 
tianity, they did as they thought themselves directed 
to do by Christ himself, through his remembered 
words and through the Holy Spirit. 

Far, far would it have been from any one of the 
Apostles, to have made changes in matters with 
regard to which Christ himself was known to have 
given express commands. 

So far as the words of Christ went, they were 
regarded as the final test and the only allowable 
guide. Where definite directions from the Master 
were wanting, the Apostles and their disciples acted 
as they felt impelled by the Spirit of God to act. 

This lordship of Christ was in the minds of the 
early Christians based upon the fact that Christ had 
by his own blood redeemed them, so that they felt 
themselves no longer their own, but Christ's, by 
right of purchase. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 201 

The spirit of obedience was not slavish, but loving. 
u If you love me, keep my commandments," said our 
Lord Jesus Christ. 

Christ promised to his disciples spiritual guidance 
into all truth, and the evidence is abundant that in 
all of their missionary work, whether in teaching or 
in organizing and developing Christian life and activ- 
ity, they relied upon and received this promised 
divine aid. 

The most fundamental thing, therefore, in Chris- 
tianity, and hence in the Apostolical church organi- 
zation, is the recognition of Christ as Lord, on whom 
alone salvation depends, to whom alone his followers 
are responsible, to whom alone in spiritual matters 
implicit obedience is due, on whom alone his follow- 
ers depend for guidance in their inner life and in 
their outward activity. 

2. The feature of Apostolical church polity next in 
importance is, if we mistake not, that of regenerate 
church-membership. The Apostolical churches were 
made up exclusively of such as gave credible evi- 
dence of saving belief in Christ, who professed 
themselves ready to separate themselves from the 
world, to crucify the flesh and the lusts thereof, to 
devote themselves wholly to the service of Christ. 

tTnregenerate men crept into the churches from 
time to time, it is true ; but when their ungodliness 
was revealed, when they were seen to be wolves in 
sheep's clothing, there was little hesitation on the 



202 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

part of the churches in " separating themselves ?? 
from such interlopers. 

The Christian life of the Apostolical churches was,, 
as a matter of fact, far below the ideal. Pagan mor- 
als and pagan conceptions could not be shaken off 
completely, at once, even by the truly regenerate ; 
but the ideal constantly kept in view was pure and 
Christlike ; if impurity existed it was recognized as 
abnormal. The Apostolical Christians did not argue 
from the impracticability of attaining to the ideal, 
that the ideal should be lowered; that no effort 
should be made to secure regenerate church-mem- 
bership, as many Christian scholars do at the pres- 
ent day. Though he knew that disorder and corrup- 
tion prevailed in the Corinthian church, Paul writes 
" to the Church of God which is at Corinth, to them 
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be 
saints." The word which we render saints ( 6.ycot ) 
— what does it mean? It means "holy" " conge- 
crated to God," " separated from the world." A 
Church which is designated " saints " can hardly be 
regarded as including normally any but regenerate 
members. Whatever in that Corinthian church did 
not conform to this characterization, Paul regarded 
as entirely abnormal. If unregenerate members 
were in the Apostolical churches they surely were 
not of them. ( I. John ii. 19.) 

In the same epistle to the Corinthian church Paul 
writes : " Know ye not that ye are God's temple, and 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 203 

that the Spirit of God dwells in you. * * * for 
the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." 
(I. Cor. iii. 16-17.) 

Our position, otherwise unassailable, would be still 
further fortified, if, as some suppose, the very word 
which we translate Church (exxXyoca) contains in itself 
an allusion to the calling of Christians out of the world 
by the Gospel, so as to form a distinct class. The 
words calling (x^avc), the called [xlr^roc), and similar 
words, occur so frequently in the !N"ew Testament 
(and always with reference to the regenerate) that 
the application of the word, already in common use 
to designate an assembly, to Christian assemblies and 
to the great Christian brotherhood could hardly 
have failed to become tinged with the same idea. 

Those only were members of the Apostolical 
churches who gave credible evidence of change of 
heart through faith in Christ, and who symbolized 
their death to sin and resurrection to newness of life, 
the washing away of the stains of sin through the 
blood of Christ, in baptism. 

This assertion the great majority of scholars of all 
denominations would probably assent to. 

3. Another leading characteristic of the Apostol- 
ical churches was that of each local church's entire 
independence of any other and of all other local churches, 
and of any individual. Each church was self-gov- 
erning, the only authority recognized being the will 

1 Compare Hodge, Church Polity, p. S sqq. 



204 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

of Christ as it was made known to them mediately 
through the inspired Apostles, and immediately 
through the Holy Spirit. 

The church at Jerusalem, for example, does not 
transmit its instructions to the church at Corinth, — 
does not threaten them with excommunication when 
it learns of the disorderly walk of some of the Corin- 
thians. 

The churches established by Apostles looked upon 
these Apostles as spiritual fathers, sought their 
advice when difficulties arose, acted upon their 
advice freely, because they recognized it as wise and 
as in accordance with the will of Christ. 

When deacons were to be appointed (Acts vi.) to 
administer the charities of the church at Jerusalem, 
what course do the Apostles pursue 1 On any pre- 
latical hypothesis they might have been expected to 
take the matter into their own hands and to appoint 
them. But this would have been unapostolic. What 
they did was truly Apostolic. " So, brethren," said 
they, " look ye out among you seven men of good 
repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom, whom we will 
appoint over this business. * * * And the saying 
pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, 
a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, 
and Prochorus, and Mcanor, and Timon, and Parme- 
nas, and Mcolas, a proselyte of Antioch, whom they 
set before the Apostles ; and when they prayed they 
laid their hands on them." 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 205 

This is a fair specimen of the relations of the 
Apostles to the Apostolical churches. They told the 
churches what to do, but they were careful that the 
execution should in every instance be the act, uncon- 
strained save by a sense of duty, of the entire church. 
The office-bearers having been chosen, the Apostles 
gave their approval and set them apart to the work, 
ceremonially. 

Take another instance : " Then it seemed good 
to the Apostles and the elders, with the whole churchy 
to choose out men of their own company and send 
them to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas." (Acts 
xv. 22). 

But does not the mission of these men to Antioch 
itself contradict what we have said ? The brethren 
at Antioch had been greatly distressed by Judaizers 
who, pretending to have received a commission from 
the church, had endeavored to force upon the con- 
sciences of the Christians at Antioch the entire Jew- 
ish ceremonial law. 

The present delegation was designed to free the 
minds of the Christians at Antioch from this disturb- 
ing influence. It was no effort to assert absolute 
authority, but simply an effort to set themselves 
right in the eyes of the Antiochians. As a younger 
and less experienced church, it was expected, of 
course, that the Antiochian would be influenced by 
the Jerusalem church. 

If the Antiochian church had become heretical. 



206 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the Jerusalem church would probably have refused 
to recognize the members as brethren. But further 
than this there was no thought of dependence of one 
church upon another. 

One church might seek the advice of another, but 
the church seeking advice remained entirely free to 
adopt or reject any advice given. One church might, 
unsolicited, admonish a sister church, but neither 
the church admonishing nor the church admonished 
would have felt that any obligation other than moral, 
other than the recognition of the truth and import- 
ance of the admonition would induce, rested upon the 
church admonished to yield to the admonition. 

The New Testament churches, therefore, were 
independent one of another; yet as being subjects of 
one Lord, brethren beloved, the members of each 
church felt a profound interest in the members of 
every other, so far as their circumstances were 
known. Each church felt bound to admonish 
churches and individuals when they were seen to be 
in error, to encourage them in adversity, to aid them 
with their counsel, their prayers and their means. 
There was a fellowship of churches, but no organic 
union. 

The relation of the Apostles to the churches which 
they founded was an exceptional relation, a relation 
which is well illustrated in the history of modern 
missions. To them the churches looked at first as 
the only external source of Christian truth; their 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 207 

word was in the estimation of their converts, as it 
was in reality, the very truth of Christ. As their living 
words were authoritative in the churches which they 
founded and in which they labored, so now their word, 
written under the guidance of the same Holy Spirit, 
by whom all their Christian activity was directed. 
As specially commissioned and specially equipped by 
Christ for a special work, the Apostles claimed and 
exercised more of authority than it could be lawful 
for any individual not so commissioned and not so 
equipped to exercise or to claim. But, as we have 
seen, even the Apostles brought to bear upon the 
churches only moral suasion, and they recognized 
fully the right of each congregation of believers to 
administer its own affairs. 

In maintaining the entire independence of the 
Apostolical churches, we encounter more of opposi- 
tion than in maintaining the recognized lordship of 
Christ or the insistance on regenerate membership 
in the Apostolic churches. Yet we believe that we 
are amply sustained by Scripture in the statements 
we have made. 

4. A fourth leading feature of the Apostolical 
churches was the recognition of the entire equality in 
point of rank and privilege of all the members. Every 
Christian has become a child of God, an heir of God 
and a joint heir with Christ. "For as many as are 
being led by God's Spirit these are sons of God. For 
ye received not a spirit of bondage that ye should fear 
again, but ye received a spirit of adoption, wherein 



208 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

we cry Abba, Father. The spirit itself bears witness 
with our spirit that we are children of God, and if 
children heirs also, heirs of God, and joint heirs with 
Christ." (Bom. viii. 14-17.) This applies not to a class 
of believers, but to all believers, to " as many as are 
led by God's spirit." If such alone as are led by 
God's spirit are recognized as proper members of 
Christian churches, as we have already seen to be the 
case, and if such as are led by God's spirit are sons 
of God, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if 
every believer has been brought into a mystical 
union with Christ, if every believer is a priest of 
God, with power to offer up to God the sacrifice of 
prayer and to plead the merits of Christ Jesus for 
himself and for others ; if to his own Master every 
Christian standeth or falleth ; if unto every Christian 
is promised the continued presence of Christ, through 
his Holy Spirit, as a comforter and a guide ; if every 
Christian is responsible, not simply for himself, but 
in great measure for those within the reach of his 
influence ; — if such are, according to the Scriptures, 
the prerogatives and duties of each individual Chris- 
tian, the idea of ranks or grades of Christians is 
utterly out of place and preposterous. 

The equality in point of rank of all the members 
of Apostolical local churches as well as of the church 
universal, may be made to appear still more clearly 
from a consideration of the metaphors employed in the 
New Testament to set forth the relations of Christians 
to Christ and to each other. " I am the vine, ye are the 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 200 

branches." (John xv. 5.) Surely it could not be said 
that one branch of a particular vine outranks another. 
One may be more advantageously situated, more 
ample, more fruitful, but all are alike in kind, all 
draw their vitality from the same source, no one is 
differentiated from another in any essential particu- 
lar. 

Again, take the metaphorical representation of the 
church under the figure of the human body. All the 
parts of the body are one flesh and blood. Each 
part has its function. Upon the presence of each 
member and the performance of its proper function 
does the completeness and the efficiency of the entire 
body depend. Each member has an important func- 
tion of its own, all minister to the whole, each mem- 
ber ministers to every other member. The function 
of one member may be more conspicuously import- 
ant than that of another; but, on examination, the 
utility of each part and its necessity in the formation 
of the organism is clearly to be seen. There is, there- 
fore, not the slightest basis in the Xew Testament for 
any sacerdotal idea. The church is a democracy. 
Church officers are not priests mediating between 
God and man, but servants, ministers. 

"The most singular evolution," writes Kenan, "that 
has ever been produced in a democracy, was brought 
about in the bosom of the Church. 1 The ecclesia, the 



1 He refers to the growth of hierarchical principles in the 

churches of the second century, 
u 



210 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

free union of persons, established on a footing of 
equality among themselves, is the thing democratical 
par excellence/ 7 

5. The headship of Christ, acknowledged by the 
Apostolical churches, the spiritual character of the 
aims of the churches, the equality of rights, duties and 
privileges, the entire independence of each church of 
all other churches, — all taken together make the idea 
of any organic union between Church and State utterly 
unthinkable as an element of the Apostolical churches. 
Not only was any union of Church and State entirely 
absent from the thought of the Apostles, but it was 
entirely contradictory to all the most fundamental 
principles of the Apostolical churches. The Apostol- 
ical churches, therefore, believed that Christ's king- 
dom was not of this world ± that Christianity was to 
accomplish its mission, not by assuming the reins of 
civil government, but by bringing individuals to 
yield themselves up in obedience to Jesus Christ. 
The triumph of Christ over all things in heaven and 
on earth and under the earth was not to be mediated 
by intriguing political prelates, but by the gradual 
transfusion from heart to heart of the spirit of 
Christ. 

6. To descend now to particulars, the Apostolical 
ehurches, in accordance with the principles already 
stated above, chose out of their own ranks individuals 
for the performance of special functions in the churches. 
However democratic a body may be, it is still indis- 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 211 

pensable, in order to its proper efficiency, that some 
organization find place. The choosing and the func- 
tions of the officers of the churches must have been 
in accordance with the above statement of prin- 
ciples. 

The officers were chosen by the entire member- 
ship of the churches, under the advice, in most 
instances, of the Apostles or their missionary dis- 
ciples. 

The officers were chosen not to rule but to serve 
the churches, and interests were committed to them 
not for their own sakes but for the sake of the 
churches. If a certain authority was delegated to 
them, it was not for the sake of the office but for 
the sake of the general weal. 

When officers had been elected by the assembled 
church, they were set apart to their special work by 
the Apostles, the object of this setting apart being 
to impart to them spiritual gifts, and to secure their 
general recognition and support in their service of 
the church. 

There certainly was no thought of exalting such 
officers into a class apart from and above the gen- 
eral body of the church. 

Men that had been thus set apart had authority to 
perforin certain functions in the church, and in that 
alone, whereto they belonged, and by which they 
were elected to perform such functions. 

If they performed similar functions in other 



212 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

churches, it must have been in accordance with a 
similar election by such churches, and if they, on 
any account, ceased to perform the functions where- 
unto they were called, there is no reason to believe 
that they retained the authority conferred upon them 
for the performance of such functions. 

The number of officers that found place in the 
Apostolical churches (apart from the Apostolate, 
which was a special provision by Christ for a special 
purpose, and which was not perpetuated ) there were 
two classes of officers and only two, viz : Bishops or 
Presbyters, and Deacons. 

That the terms Enta-KOTtoc, and npea6i>repo^ are 
employed in the New Testament to denote, not two 
classes of officers, but one, is clear from an examina- 
tion of the use of the terms, and is admitted by 
most advocates of Episcopacy. We shall, in the 
first place, show that the terms are used interchange- 
ably in the New Testament, and afterwards quote a 
few of the more striking admissions by advocates 
of Episcopacy. 

The term most frequently employed in the New 
Testament to denote pastors of Churches is IIpea6o- 
repoc — Elder. Various other terms are also used, as 
Ilocprjv — Pastor; AtdaaxaXot; — Teacher. 

The term npe^urzpoc, occurs in the New Testa- 
ment seventeen times, to denote church officers. 

The term Entoxonoc, — Overseer, Bishop, occurs only 
five times. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 213 

The term e-toxozouvTzt;— performing the functions of 
a Bishop, occurs once. 

In all instances, except in the one instance where 
it is applied to Christ, the " shepherd and bishop of 
our souls n ( I. Pet. ii. 25 ) the term Etzioxottoi; is used 
in such a manner as to make it absolutely certain 
that those designated Bishops are no other than 
Presbyters or Elders. 

In I. Tim. iii. 2, the term Bishop is used in connec- 
tion with the term Deacon, as if these two classes of 
officers exhausted the category. The qualifications 
of Bishops are given at length, and afterwards those 
of Deacons, no mention whatever being made of 
Presbyters. 

In Titus i. 5 sq., Paul, having spoken of the work 
which he has entrusted to Titus as that of appoint- 
ing Presbyters, and having pointed out in general the 
essential qualifications of such officers, assigns as a 
reason for insisting on such qualifications : l * for the 
Bishop must be blameless as God's steward, etc." It 
is perfectly evident that the terms Bishop and Pres- 
byter are here used with reference to the same indi- 
vidual. 

Again, in Philippians i. 1, Paul salutes " all the 
saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi, together 
with Bishops and Deacons." If there had been Pres- 
byters as distinct from Bishops, Paul would hardly 
have failed to mention them in such a connection. 

So also in I. Peter v. 1, 2, we read: "The Presby- 



214 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ters, therefore, who are among you, as a fellow pres- 
byter and witness of the sufferings of Christ * * * 
I exhort, fulfilling the office of Bishops ( eTTccrxoxovvTEz) 
shepherd the flock of God among you," etc. That 
is, presbyters are exhorted to perform the functions 
of bishops or overseers. 

Again in Acts xx. 17, we read : " Having sent from 
Miletus to Ephesus he (Paul) called for the Presby- 
ters of the church." Having addressed to these 
presbyters a most touching account of his past rela- 
tions to them and the church, and having signified 
his prospective departure, perhaps never to see 
their faces more, he exhorts them as follows : " Take 
heed therefore to yourselves and to the whole flock 
in which the Holy Spirit appointed you Bishops 
(sTiccrxoTTouz) to shepherd the church of God [or of the 
Lord] which he purchased through his own blood." 
(vs. 28). The identity of the persons denominated 
Presbyters with those denominated Bishops is here 
perfectly evident, and perhaps none would venture 
to question it. 

The term Presbyter was derived probably from 
the Jewish Synagogue, and was the term in common 
use among Jewish Christians to denote the office of 
those that had the especial oversight of Christian 
churches. The term with Christians, as with Jews, 
was therefore, one of dignity. 

The term Bishop was confined to Gentile churches, 
and was a word in common use among the Greeks 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 215 

to denote the office of oversight or superintend- 
ence. The word Bishop, therefore, refers not so 
much to the dignity as to the duties of the office. 

We subjoin a few statements from Roman Cath- 
olic and Anglican writers, all men of highest author- 
ity in matters of ecclesiastical history : 

A lzog l { Roman Catholic) admits that "the words 
e-taxozoz and Tzpecrduzepoz are, in the New Testament, 
applied indifferently to the same person." * * * 
" Peter and John, though Apostles, call themselves 
I7pe<j6uT£pot." * * * " The name * Bishop > signifying 
a title of authority, was of later origin. In churches 
whose members were composed of Jewish converts, 
the word Elders ( TzpeaSurepoc ) was used to designate 
those holding offices of dignity, while in those fre- 
quented by pagan converts the word used for the 
same purpose was overseers (etzloxotzol), and hence 
Peter and James uniformly use npeafiurepot; not 

ZTTCOXOTCOZ." 

Lightfoot (an Anglican, now Bishop of Durham, 
and universally recognized as standing at the very 
head of theological science in England ) writes : 2 
"It is a fact now generally recognized by theologians 
of all shades of opinion, that in the language of the 
Xew Testament the same officer in the church is 
called indifferently i bishop 7 ( etzcoxottoz ) and ' elder' 
or 'presbyter' (Tipeafiuzepoz) * * * JEpiscopus — 

1 Univ. Ch. Hist. i. ? p. 201-2. 

2 St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians, 2 ed., p. 93 sq. 



216 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

' bishop,' ' overseer > — was an official title among the 
Greeks. In the Athenian language it was used 
especially to designate commissioners appointed to 
regulate a new colony or acquisition, so that the 
Attic ' bishop' corresponded to the Spartan ' har- 
inosf * * * In the LXX., the word is common. 
In some places it signifies i inspectors/ i superinten- 
dents/ ' taskmasters J ; in others it is a higher title, 
4 captains ' or ' presidents '." * * * 

" The earlier history of the word presbyteros, (elder, 
presbyter or priest ) is much more closely connected 
with its Christian sense." * * * " Among the chosen 
people we meet at every turn with presbyters or 
elders in Church and State from the earliest to the 
latest times." * * " Over every Jewish synagogue, 
whether at home or abroad, a council of ' elders/ 
presided. It was not unnatural therefore that, when 
a Christian synagogue took its place side by side 
with the Jewish, a similar organization should be 
adopted, with such modifications as circumstances 
required." Bishop Lightfoot then goes on to prove, 
from a consideration of the ]S ew Testament passages 
cited above, "the identity of the i bishop ' and ' pres- 
byter' in the language of the apostolic age." 

Jacob (an Anglican theologian of good repute) 
writes : x " The only bishops mentioned in the New 
Testament were simple presbyters ; the same person 

1 The Ecclesiastical Polity of the New Testament, p. 72, sq. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 217 

being- a ' bishop 7 — errcaxoTzo^ i. e. a superintendent or 
1 overseer, 7 from his ' taking an oversight ' of his 
congregation, as is distinctly shown by Acts xx. and 
other passages ; and a presbyter — xpeeduTepOG or 
elder, from the reverence due to age. It may, how- 
ever, be observed that the office of elder is of 
Hebrew origin ; while the term eiztaxoTzo^ is Hellenic, 
and is applied in the New Testament only to the 
officers of Gentile churches, though it did not super- 
sede the use of the word presbyter among them." 

Conybeare and Howson (Anglicans) write: 1 "Of 
the officers concerned with church government, the 
next in rank to that of the apostles was the office of 
overseers or elders, more usually known (by their 
Greek designations) as bishops or presbyters. These 
terms are used in the New Testament as equivalent, 
the former ( sTnaxorro- ) denoting (as its meaning of 
overseer implies ) the duties, the latter (TrpeaSuTepoz) 
the rank, of the office." 

Such citations from Episcopalian writers might be 
multiplied. 

The Eeformers, e. g. Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, 
Cranmer, Coverdale, etc., were of the same opinion. 

The Protestant church historians of the present 
century, and especially the German church histo- 
rians, who have studied church history more scien- 
tifically and more exhaustively than it was ever 

1 Life and Epistles of St. Paul, (Treat's Am. Ed.) p. 433 sq. 



218 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

studied before, are well-nigh unanimous in their 
assertion of the identity of presbyters and bishops 
in the Apostolical churches. Among many who dis- 
tinctly teach the identity, I may mention Meander, 
Gieseler, Guericke, Hase, Kurtz, Herzog, Eitschl, 
Hagenbach and Bunsen. 

The second class of officers in the Apostolical 
churches ( probably the first in point of time ) were 
Beacons. There seems to us to be no sufficient rea- 
son to doubt but that the diaconate was established 
when the Apostles advised the Jerusalem Christians 
to choose out from among them suitable men to take 
charge of the church charities ( Acts vi.). The mean- 
ing of the word diaxovot; is minister, and hence the 
essential idea is that of service. As older, more 
experienced men were commonly appointed to the 
presbyter ate or eldership, so younger, more active 
men were, we may suppose, commonly appointed to 
the diaconate. 

The seclusion of females in eastern society 
made it important that females should minister to 
them. Hence deaconesses existed in the Apostolical 
churches. ( Rom. xvi. 1. comp. I. Tim. v. 3-16.) 

7. The Apostolical churches were characterized 
by the regular observance, in the spirit of loving 
obedience, of certain ordinances instituted by Christ. 
Christianity was not designed to be a ceremonial 
religion. The spirit of the gospel is a spirit of free- 
dom. " Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 219 

liberty." But Christ himself instituted two ordi- 
nances, for perpetual observance, which are most 
appropriate as bringing frequently before the 
believer, in an impressive manner, the central truths 
of the Christian faith. As to the number and the 
names of these two ordinances all Protestants, we 
may assume, are at one. They are Baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. 

Let us ascertain, if we can, the precise nature of 
the rite, which in the Apostolical churches was 
designated by the term Baptism. How was it 
performed? The meaning of the term, as it is 
generally admitted, is sufficient to make it perfectly 
evident to an unprejudiced mind, that the outward 
form of the rite was the immersion of the subject in 
icater. That such is the meaning of the term will be 
abundantly confirmed, as we proceed, by the testi- 
mony of scholars who can certainly have not the 
slightest interest beyond the interest of truth, in 
maintaining this view. 

The circumstances connected with the perform- 
ance of the rite are of such a nature that even if 
the designation of the rite were equivocal, there 
would be no sufficient reason to doubt but that the 
thing actually performed under the name of baptism 
was immersion in Avater. 

Again, even if the meaning of the word " baptism n 
were doubtful and we were left without the circum- 
stances, the practice of the western churches until 



220 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the middle ages, and the persistent practice of the 
oriental churches, would make it morally certain that 
the rite denominated baptism was from the very 
beginning the immersion of the subject in water. 

This is not the place for an elaborate philological 
discussion. The discussions of the subject by others 
are so exhaustive and so conclusive that I shall con- 
tent myself with citing a few striking passages from 
the writings of those who defend the validity of bap- 
tism by other methods than immersion. 

Such, in our judgment, and, as we shall see, in 
the judgment of the scholarship of the ages, is the 
outward form designated baptism in the Apostolical 
churches. What was the aim and significance of 
the rite 1 Was it in the Apostolical churches an opus 
operatum ! Did the Apostles and their followers 
receive and administer the rite with the feeling that 
it produced a magical effect ? 

They certainly regarded baptism as important, from 
the fact that Christ himself had submitted to it, and 
that he had made it a part of his Great Commission. 
As an act of obedience to Christ they certainly did 
not feel at liberty to neglect it. 

They certainly expected that in this as in all other 
acts of obedience to Christ they would receive the 
divine blessing. 

They regarded it as an initiatory ceremony into 
the visible Church of Christ — as an act of conse- 
cration to Christ — as an outward symbol of the inner 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 221 

spiritual cleansing which they experience, through 
repentance for sin and faith in Christ Jesus as the 
Saviour from sin and from death. 

They certainly regarded baptism as symbolical of 
the death of the believer to sin, and his resurrection 
to newness of life, in imitation of the burial and 
resurrection of Christ. 

But that baptism was regarded in the sense of an 
opus operatum is entirely contrary to the spirit of 
the New Testament, to the direct teachings of the 
Apostles, to the circumstances under which the rite 
was performed. " By faith ye are saved " is, in sub- 
stance, reiterated constantly throughout the New 
Testament. If it is added that " faith without works 
is dead," the reference is far more to works of mercy, 
to Christian life and Christian effort for the salvation 
of others, than to the performance of any outward 
rites. It is never said or intimated that " by baptism 
ye are saved." "The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses 
from all sin," not "baptism." "He that believeth. 
and is baptized shall be saved; he that believeth 
not shall be damned." Not " he that is not baptized 
shall be damned." 

The passages that have been especially relied upon 
for the support of baptismal regeneration are : Acts 
ii. 38 ; xxii. 16 ; Eph. v. 26 ; I. Peter, iv. 11. Now, 
taken apart from their connection, and interpreted 
without any regard to the particular teachings of the 
Apostles with regard to the way of salvation, and the 



222 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

general tone of New Testament Christianity, these 
passages might easily be supposed to attach some- 
thing more than a symbolical meaning to baptism. 
Let us consider these passages one by one : 

Acts ii. 38. "Bepent and be baptized every 
one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the 
remission of sins," is entirely inadequate for the 
purpose for which it is employed. Evidently the 
repentance is regarded as the first and most import- 
ant step, and this alone is indispensable to the 
remission of sins. But Peter couples the two 
together, from the fact that the one followed imme- 
diately upon the other in Apostolic practice, and the 
two-fold act, the inner change and the outward 
recognition of the change, are represented jointly as 
securing remission of sins. The passage, therefore, 
is perfectly explicable in itself; but even if it were 
less so, our duty would be to interpret it in accord- 
ance with the numerous explicit teachings of the 
Apostles on this subject; and not in such a way as 
to contradict such explicit teachings and the entire 
spirit of the gospel. 

Let us consider the passage, Acts xxii. 16 : "Arise 
and be baptized and wash away thy sins." This pas- 
sage occurs in Paul's account of his own conversion. 
He had been struck down on the way to Damascus, 
had yielded himself up in entire submission to Christ 
("What shall I do Lord?"); in obedience to the 
divine command he had gone to Damascus for fur- 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 223 

ther instruction as to his duty ; it is revealed to him 
by Ananias that he has been chosen by God to be a 
witness for him unto all men. His repentance and 
his faith in Christ are certainly presupposed. The 
washing away of his sins in baptism, which Ananias 
enjoins, can, therefore, be only a symbolical washing. 
Paul, who relates this of himself, certainly regarded 
salvation as entirely of grace, through faith in Christ 
Jesus, who died for sinners. We must, therefore, 
suppose that Paul understood the words of Ananias 
in accordance with this fundamental principle of all 
his preaching. 

So, also, the passage, Eph. v. 26 : * * * " Christ 
also loved the church, and delivered himself up for 
it, that having cleansed it with the washing of the 
water he might sanctify it by the word," must be 
taken in connection with Paul's constantly empha- 
sized doctrine of justification by faith. The washing 
of water is only symbolical of the inner washing 
through the Spirit of God. 

In I. Peter iii. 21, we read: "And now as an 
antitype, baptism saves you." But, lest this should 
be misunderstood, the Apostle explains: "Not a 
putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer- 
ing of a good conscience unto God, through the 
resurrection of Jesus Christ." Evidently, Peter has 
in mind here the symbolical significance and not a 
magical effect of baptism. 

We must admit that bv those who are otherwise 



224 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

inclined to attach a magical efficacy to the baptismal 
rite, these passages can easily be made to favor such 
a view. But if we interpret these passages in ac- 
cordance with the otherwise well-known Apostolical 
views of salvation, we shall be in no danger of going 
astray. 

Such was the nature of the external rite, such its 
aim and significance. Who were the subjects of this 
rite f Even if we had no facts on which to base our 
answer to this question, we should be at no loss to 
decide. If baptism is an initiatory rite, and if the 
Apostolic churches, as we have shown to be the 
case, were, theoretically at least, composed entirely 
of believers, then the subjects of baptism could be 
none other than believers ; if, as we have seen to be 
the case, baptism is spoken of in the New Testament, 
only in connection with faith and repentance, . this 
indicates as clearly as possible, that the subjects of 
baptism are so far advanced in age as to be capable 
of repentance and faith, capable of turning away 
from sin and self, and turning unto Christ. 

There is no passage in the New Testament that 
lends any probability to the view in accordance with 
which unconscious infants were baptized in the New 
Testament time. 

In cases where households were baptized, it is cer- 
tain, in accordance with the plain teachings and the 
general spirit of the New Testament, either that 
no infants were members of the households, or else 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 225 

that they were left entirely out of account in a mat- 
ter which, according to Apostolic conceptions, could 
sustain no possible relation to them. 

We may supply the place of elaborate argumenta- 
tion, by making a number of citations from writers 
of recognized authority and whose consistency would 
best be subserved by an entirely reverse explana- 
tion of primitive Christianity. 

Dr. Jacob (an Anglican) writes : x " It may at once 
be inferred from the words of the original institution, 
that this sacrament was to be an initiatory rite in the 
church. It was to be administered to those who 
believed in the One God, the Father of all; who 
acknowledged Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God, 
the long promised and now manifested Saviour ; who 
accepted the doctrine that the Divine Spirit is the 
author of holiness in man, and would lead them to the 
knowledge and practice of the Christian life ; and 
who with this amount of understanding and convic- 
tion were desirous to renounce the dominion and 
deeds of sin, to become obedient servants of Christ's 
Spiritual Kingdom, and to join themselves to him 
and to his church. To such persons their baptism 
was to be the sign and seal of their discipleship ; and 
thus to be the formal evidence of their Christian pro- 
fession, — their actual admission into the visible fel- 
lowship of the church — the symbol of their union 



1 Eccl. Polity of the N. T., p. 246. 

15 



226 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

with Christ, and of their participation in the privi- 
leges which that union imparts." 

Dr. Jacob's view is evidently the same as that 
which we have stated above, with regard to the aim 
and significance of baptism. What does he say as 
to the mode of baptism? 

"Baptism in the primitive church was evidently 
administered by immersion of the body in the water 
— a mode which added to the significance of the rite 
and gave a peculiar force to some of the allusions 
to it." 1 

We surely have no fault to find with Dr. Jacob's 
statement with regard to the mode of baptism prac- 
ticed in the Apostolic churches. What then does 
he say concerning the subjects of baptism in the 
Apostolic churches'? 

"Notwithstanding all that has been written by 
learned men upon this subject, it remains indispu- 
table that infant baptism is not mentioned in the 
New Testament. No instance of it is recorded there ; 
no allusion is made to its effects ; no directions are 
given for its administration. * * * It ought to 
be distinctly acknowledged that it is not an Apos- 
tolic ordinance." 

We shall have space for only a few more citations 
on this subj ect. We cannot do better than to give a 
few striking passages from the recent article on the 
subject "Baptism," 2 published by Dr. 'A, P. Stanley, 

i Eccl. Polity of the K T., p. 258. 
2 Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1879. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 227 

Dean of Westminster, whose name is as widely 
known and as universally respected as that of any 
other churchman of the present time. 

Having- stated that the primitive idea of baptism 
is that of cleansing, the outward rite symbolizing the 
inward spiritual state, Dean Stanley proceeds : 
"'Baptism' was not only a bath, but a plunge — an 
entire submersion in the deep water, a leap as into 
the rolling sea or the rushing river, where for the 
moment the waves close over the bather's head, and 
he emerges again as from a momentary grave ; or it 
was the shock of a shower-bath, the rush of water 
passed over the whole person from capacious ves- 
sels, so as to wrap the recipient as within the veil of 
a splashing cataract. This was the part of the cere- 
mony on which the Apostles laid so much stress. It 
seemed to them like a burial of the old former self, 
and the rising up again of the new self. So St. Paul 
compared it to the Israelites passing through the 
roaring waves of the Red Sea, and St. Peter to the 
passing through the deep waters of the flood. 'We 
are buried,' said St. Paul, ' with Christ by baptism at 
his death ; that like as Christ was raised, thus we also 
should walk in the newness of life.' " 

Having described more minutely the baptismal rite 
with its circumstances, as it was practiced in the 
Apostolic churches, he proceeds : " These are the 
outer forms of which, in the Western churches, al- 
most every particular is altered, even in the most 



228 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

material points. Immersion has become the excep- 
tion, and not the rule. Adult baptism, as well as 
immersion, exists only among the Baptists. The 
dramatic action of the scene is lost." 

The learned Dean goes on to enumerate and dis- 
cuss the changes that have taken place in the ordi- 
nance. He shows, with perfect right, as we humbly 
believe, that the first change was a change in doc- 
trine : " There was the belief in early ages that it 
was like a magical charm, which acted on the persons 
who received it without any consent or intention, 
either of administrator or recipient, as in the case of 
children or actors performing the rite with no seri- 
ous intention. There was also the belief that it 
wiped away all sins, however long they had been 
accumulating, and however late it was administered. 
# * # There was the yet more dreadful supersti- 
tion, that no one could be saved unless he had passed 
through Baptism." 

The second change, according to Dean Stanley, was 
a change in form (logically and chronologically the 
change in subject preceded the change in form, but 
we retain Dean Stanley's order). "For the first 
thirteen centuries w he writes, " the almost universal 
practice of baptism was that of which we read in the 
New Testament, and which is the very meaning of 
the word ' baptize J — that those who were baptized 
were plunged, submerged, immersed into the water. 
That practice is still * * * continued in Eastern 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 229 

churches. Iu the Western church it still lingers 
amongst Eoinan Catholics in the solitary instance of 
the Cathedral of Milan, amongst Protestants in the 
austere sect of the Baptists. It lasted long into the 
Middle Ages. Even the Icelanders, who at first 
shrank from the waters of their freezing lakes, were 
reconciled when they found that they could use the 
warm water of the Geysers. * * * Baptism by 
sprinkling was rejected by the whole ancient church 
(except in the rare case of death-beds or extreme 
necessity) as no baptism at all." 

The third change discussed by Dean Stanley is the 
change of subjects. From the expressions that have 
already been cited, we might readily infer the course 
of his discussion of this change. " In the Apostolic 
age, and in the three centuries which followed, it is 
evident that, as a general rule, those who came to 
baptism came in full age, of their own deliberate 
choice. We find a few cases of the baptism of chil- 
dren ; 1 in the third century we find one case of the 
baptism of infants. 2 

lHe does not mean in the Apostolic age, but in the first 
three centuries. 

2 This last clause may be misleading. If the Dean states the 
matter too strongly on our side, we do not think that we ought 
to take advantage of it, bat to correct it. We may observe that 
in the instance which Dean Stanley doubtless has in mind here, 
the discussion of the subject in one of Cyprian's letters, the 
question is not as to whether infants may lawfully be baptized, 
but whether they may be lawfully baptized before the eighth 
day, Cyprian decides that the ceremonial impurity of the 



230 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

"The liturgical service of baptism was framed 
entirely for full-grown converts, and is only by con- 
siderable adaptation applied to the case of infants 
Gradually, however, the practice spread, and after 
the fifth century the whole Christian world, East and 
West, Catholic and Protestant, Episcopal and Presby- 
terian, (with the single exception of the sect of the 
Baptists before mentioned) have baptized children 
in their infancy. 1 

«# # # What is the justification of this almost 
universal departure from the primitive usage ? There 
may have been many reasons, some bad, some good. 
One, no doubt, was the superstitious feeling already 
mentioned, which regarded baptism as a charm, indis- 
pensable to salvation, and which insisted on imparting 
it to every human being who could be touched with 
water, however unconscious." 

Here, as on the identity of presbyters and bishops, 
it would be easy to multiply citations from English, 
German, French and American authors — men who 

child ought to furnish no obstacle, and that if grown-up people, 
who are full of pollution, are fit subjects of baptism, much 
more are infants, who have personally committed no sin. We 
should be inclined to infer from this passage, if its genuineness 
be admitted, that baptism of infants was becoming common by 
the middle of the third century. 

1 As we took the liberty of explaining a misleading passage 
to our hurt, so now we object to the sweeping statement con- 
tained in the last sentence. In the Middle Ages, the Petro- 
brusians, Henricians and many of the Waldenses rejected infant 
baptism. So also the Anabaptists and the Socinians in the six- 
teenth century. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 231 

stand highest in scholarship and in general esteem, 
agreeing substantially as to the nature, mode and 
all subjects of the baptismal ordinance as practiced 
in the primitive churches. 

We should find that almost complete unanimity 
exists among the scholars of the world, (Roman 
Catholic and Protestant), with regard to the form of 
Apostolic baptism; as to the subjects of baptism in 
the Apostolic churches, the unanimity would be 
found considerably less ; as to the nature of the 
rite, still greater diversity of opinion would appear. 

The other ordinance of our Lord, designed for 
perpetual observance, and practiced as such in the 
Apostolic churches, is the Lord's Supper. 

The significance of this ordinance, in the Apostoli- 
cal churches, was two-fold : First, to commemorate 
the incarnation and the death of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. "This do in remembrance of me." "As 
often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye 
do show forth the Lord's death till he come." 
Secondly, it was a communion of believers with 
Christ and among themselves. "The bread which 
we break, is it not the communion of the body of 
Christ? for we being many are one bread and one 
body : for we are all partakers of that one bread." 
The word rendered "communion," in the passage 
just cited, means simply "participation in;" but the 
expressions that follow show that the idea of joint 
participation was also present in the Apostle's mind. 



232 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

We shall not attempt, on this occasion, to refute 
the doctrine of the real presence of the body and 
blood of Christ in the ordinance under its two-fold 
aspect of transubstantiation and con substantiation ; 
nor the theory in accordance with which the Lord's 
Supper partakes of the nature of a sacrifice. Such 
a discussion would require more space than can be 
given to it, and would probably interest few of the 
readers of this article. 

Who, in the Apostolic age, were the participants 
in this ordinance t No one will pretend that any but 
baptized believers were such. Believers, in the 
Apostolic times, were promptly baptized ; baptism 
forming, in the eyes of the Apostles, an integral part 
of the profession of belief in Christ. 

Certainly no one would have thought of partaking 
of the Lord's Supper without having made full 
profession of his conversion to Christ. Most Chris- 
tian churches, throughout the entire Christian era, 
have not only understood the New Testament prac- 
tice thus, but have themselves practiced close com- 
munion, i. e., have regarded communion as an ordi- 
nance to be participated in only by those who have 
fulfilled all the conditions of church-membership. 

II. Apostolical and Baptist Churches Com- 
pared as to Form and Spirit. 
Such, as we humbly believe, were the essential 
characteristics of the Apostolical churches. They 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 233 

acknowledged Christ as the only head, and regarded 
his will, as communicated to them by the Holy Spirit 
and through the Apostles, as absolutely binding. The 
Apostolical churches were composed theoretically, 
and practically as far as rigid discipline could make 
them so, of true believers, of the regenerate. Each 
Apostolical church was absolutely independent of 
all other churches and of any men or class of men. 
The members of these churches were possessed of 
equal rights and privileges, there being manifest 
nothing of the nature of a hierarchy or sacerdotal 
class. Anything like a union of Church and State 
is utterly repugnant to the Apostolical teachings 
with regard to the nature and end of the church. The 
Apostolical churches chose out of their own ranks 
officers for the performance of special functions, 
which officers regarded themselves and were re- 
garded, not as lords, but as servants or ministers of 
the churches for which they performed functions. 
These officers were divided, in the Apostolic times, 
into two general classes : bishops or presbyters, and 
deacons. The ordinances instituted by our Lord for 
perpetual observance, and which were faithfully per- 
formed in the Apostolical churches, were two : Bap- 
tism and the Lord's Supper. 

Such were the Apostolical churches. TVhat are 
the essential characteristics of Baptist churches ? 

Do Baptist churches correspond with Apostolical 
churches in the first specification ? They do most 



234 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

perfectly. As the Apostolical churches depended 
for doctrine and for methods of organization upon 
Apostolical teaching, representing to them the mind 
of Christ, so Baptists make the Scriptures, and 
especially the Apostolical writings, given as they 
believe by Divine inspiration for the perpetual guid- 
ance of Christians, and interpreted by the aid of the 
Holy Spirit, their rule of faith and practice. As the 
New Testament churches were organized in accord- 
ance with Apostolical direction, so Baptists believe 
that churches for all time ought to be organized in 
accordance with Apostolical direction, and, where 
express direction is wanting, they feel and maintain 
that churches ought to proceed in accordance with 
the spirit of the New Testament precept and example. 

Baptists may make innovations within certain lim- 
its, but these limits are very definitely fixed. There 
may be, in their view, development to meet the exi- 
gencies of the times and the circumstances in which 
a church may be placed ; but such development must 
be strictly in a line with the New Testament precept 
and example. No fundamental principle of Apostol- 
ical Christianity and church order must be violated, 
however expedient such violation may, to human 
comprehension, appear. 

Christ is the supreme head of the Church, the Lord 
of the consciences of all believers. His will is and 
must be the supreme rule for believers. Now Christ 
either has revealed and does reveal his will to be- 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 235 

lievers, or not. Either the Scriptures set forth the 
will of Christ with regard to us, or not. If they do, 
then we have a firm foundation whereon to stand, 
and we ought to stand upon it. If not, we are left 
entirely to human caprice. 

The church order laid down in the Xew Testament 
is exceedingly simple; but church order, Baptists 
hold, ought to be simple. 

Some minor matters, of Apostolical example, that 
bear no necessary relation to what is fundamental in 
Christianity, Baptists may and do put aside. 

Matters of practical expediency, which do not 
conflict with any fundamental principal of Apostoli- 
cal Christianity, but can be clearly shown to be in 
harmony with such principles, Baptists wisely super- 
add. 

But Baptists are and ought to be exceedingly 
careful and conservative with regard to any such 
changes. They recognize the fact that it is better to 
err on the side of conservatism than on the side of 
liberalism. 

Let us illustrate. Baptists have, for the most 
part, abandoned the Love Feast, which was com- 
monly observed in Apostolic times, in connection 
with the Lord's Supper, partly as a charitable arrange- 
ment for providing for destitute Christians, and 
partly as a means of Christian social intercourse. 
Love Feasts were not appointed by Christ, they 
were not enjoined by Apostolic precept, they are 



236 3APTIST DOCTRINES. 

rendered necessary by no fundamental law of Chris- 
tianity. The fundamental ideas which it was designed 
to subserve — liberal provision for destitute Chris- 
tians and fraternal intercourse among Christians — 
are of perpetual obligation, and these ends are at 
present better subserved in other ways. 

On the other hand : The Apostolic churches had 
no costly structures in which to worship ; had no 
musical instruments with which to accompany their 
singing of psalms; had nothing, probably, which 
corresponded entirely with our Sunday preaching 
services ; had no regularly appointed Associations, 
Conventions, or Mission Boards ; had nothing cor- 
responding exactly with our Sunday-schools. 

Yet no fundamental principle of Apostolical Chris- 
tianity is violated by the building of costly struc- 
tures for Christian worship, provided only that they 
are paid for ; that their building does not conflict 
with other Christian duties, the caring for the poor, 
the dissemination of the truth at home and abroad, 
etc.; and that they do not foster in the members of 
such churches a spirit of self-sufficiency and pride, 
or deter the poor from the privileges of the sanc- 
tuary. 

The use of musical instruments, in connection 
with Christian worship, violates no fundamental 
Christian principle, in so far as it does not tend 
more to sensuous gratification than to the intensi- 
fying of the religious aspirations. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 237 

The regular employment of the Lord's Bay for 
special preaching- services by an elder, one of whose 
chief functions is pulpit oratory, violates no funda- 
mental principle of Apostolical Christianity, so far as 
it does not weaken the sense of responsibility in 
individual church members, so far as it does not 
foster the habit of attending church services largely 
for the merely intellectual gratification furnished by 
eloquent speaking, so far as it does not foster a sac- 
erdotal spirit ; and so far as it does prove itself to be 
a great element of power in winning souls to Christ 
and in promoting Christian intelligence and Christian 
development. The evils which might otherwise flow 
out of this practice are obviated to a great extent 
by the social meetings which are, in our judgment, an 
elemental part of Christian church order. 

So also, in annual and other associations of 
churches no Apostolical principle is violated, so long 
as freedom of discussion is maintained, so long as 
they do not become practically mere means of get- 
ting registered the decisions of a few; and so long 
as they do promote Christian fellowship among the 
churches, knowledge in the individual churches of 
the religious needs and the efforts to supply these 
needs in the outside world, activity in the churches, 
(and of course in the individual members of the 
churches) in every good word and work. 

Not only are such associations not contrary to the 
Apostolic spirit, but they are clearly in accordance 
with the Apostolic spirit. 



238 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

The aim of Christianity, and hence the proper aim 
of every church, is the highest development of its 
members in spirituality and in Christian knowledge, 
and the extension of the knowledge of the truth to 
the greatest possible number of those that are with- 
out. 

Whatever really favors this aim is sure to accord 
with the will of Christ and with the spirit of the 
Apostolic churches. Yet we may well be on our 
guard against incidental evils, such as those sug- 
gested above. 

That Baptists insist upon regenerate church-mem- 
bership has always been at the same time their glory 
and the occasion of their being persecuted and 
treated with contempt by other Christians. This 
principle, as it was the second fundamental principle 
in the Apostolical churches, so it is the second funda- 
mental principle in Baptist churches. It was this, 
and not the rejection of infant baptism, that lay at 
the bottom of the Anabaptist movement in the six- 
teenth century. Zwingle was inclined to agree with 
Grebel, Manz and Hiibmaier in their rejection of 
infant baptism, until, all at once, it dawned upon him 
that something lay behind the rejection of infant 
baptism in the minds of these earnest, godly men 
namely, a belief in the necessity of a church of the 
regenerate. So, to-day, a belief in the necessity of 
using all available means for the securing of regen- 
erate church-membership is the most fundamental 
principle of Baptist churches. 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 230 

From this Xew Testament principle, this principle 
which cannot be eliminated from Christian churches 
without great and constantly increasing harm, all 
other distinctive points of Baptist, as of Apostolical, 
church polity, naturally flow. 

If saving belief in Christ is necessary to church- 
membership, then saving belief in Christ is pre- 
requisite to the validity of Baptism, an initiation into 
church-membership involving a profession of such 
saving belief. Hence, infant baptism was never 
thought of in the Apostolic age, and has been 
utterly abolished by the Baptists, who have made 
the Apostolic churches their model, the Apostolic 
spirit their guide. 

Again, if all church-members are saints, regen- 
erate, separate from the world, united with Christ, 
sons of God, then there can be no such thing as dif- 
ference of rank or difference of privilege in churches 
of such constituency. All sacerdotalism thus falls 
to the ground. Whatever officers the church 
may have, they stand upon precisely the same foot- 
ing as other members. Natural gifts may fit one 
above another for the performance of certain func- 
tions, but the performer is not elevated thereby, is 
put in no different relation to Christ, is simply doing 
his duty according to the ability that has been given 
him, just as the humblest Christian does his duty to 
the extent of his ability. 

Again, as the Apostolic churches were independ- 



240 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ent, each of all other churches, and relied upon the 
teachings of the Apostles as embodying the re- 
vealed will of Christ, but interpreted such teachings 
each one for himself, — "each one being fully per- 
suaded in his own mind," and acting according to 
such persuasion, — so Baptists believe that each indi- 
vidual church-member has the inalienable right to 
interpret the Scriptures for himself, with the light 
which his education, his reason, and the Holy Spirit 
give him, and to think and act according to the dic- 
tates of his own conscience. 

This involves freedom of each individual in the 
congregation, and freedom of each congregation 
from any outside interference, whether of prelate, 
presbytery or State. 

As the Apostolic churches scrupulously observed 
the two ordinances that Christ entrusted to them as 
matters of perpetual observance, so Baptists pre- 
serve these ordinances in spirit, in form, in subjects, 
to the best of their ability. 

Baptists insist that the rite of baptism be per- 
formed by baptism, not by rhantism. Just as only 
believers were baptized in the Apostolic churches, 
and just as the ordinance is in its nature and design 
suitable only to believers, so Baptists maintain and 
practice to the best of their ability. 

Just as, in matters of great importance, Apostolical 
churches sought the counsel of other Apostolical 
churches, and acted on such counsel freely when 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 241 

received, so Baptist churches, as a matter of ex- 
pediency, frequently consult with other Baptist 
churches, on important local matters and on matters 
affecting- the cause of Christ in general. 

Again, just as the Apostles, as representatives of 
Christian work in different regions, met at Jeru- 
salem, in convention, to discuss questions of impor- 
tance, so now Baptist churches appoint delegates to 
assemble from time to time, to discuss matters per- 
taining to the progress of Christ's cause; and just as 
this Apostolical convention appointed certain Apos- 
tles to a special work, so Baptist churches by their 
delegates form missionary societies for the more 
efficient carrying forward of the work of Christ at 
home and abroad. 

III. Concluding Remarks. 

Such are, in brief, the principles and the practices 
of Baptist churches, as held to theoretically by the 
great Baptist brotherhood. Most institutions with 
which men have to do are inferior to their ideals, 
especially if their ideals are exalted and Christlike. 

Although Baptists claim to make absolute obedi- 
ence to Christ their fundamental principle, how 
many Baptists give the lie to their profession by im- 
pure, selfish, unevangelical lives ! 

Although Baptists insist theoretically upon re- 
generate church-membership, how many Baptist 
churches tolerate, on account of financial and social 

16 



242 BAPTIST DOCTRINES, 

considerations, members that give abundant evi- 
dence of being members of Satan rather than mem- 
bers of Christ ! 

Although Baptists believe in the divine right 01 
every individual Christian to interpret the Scriptures 
for himself, and to act freely according to the full 
persuasion of his own mind, how scantily is this free- 
dom, as a general thing, accorded ! Baptist churches 
have a standard of orthodoxy, partly written, 
partly traditional, the aim and effect whereof is in 
many cases to hamper the freedom of individual con- 
sciences. The amount of bigotry and intolerance to 
be found in Baptist churches is, when compared with 
the fundamental principles of Baptists, appalling! 

Again, Baptist churches are theoretically demo- 
cratical ; but to how great an extent are they gov- 
erned oligarchically ! Elders and deacons are theo- 
retically servants, ministers of the churches. How 
often, alas ! do they insist upon " lording it over God's 
heritage." 

Even with regard to the ordinances, which Baptist 
churches alone keep theoretically to the Apostolical 
norm, how much bigotry and Phariseeism often find 
place in Baptist churches ! As forms appointed by 
Christ, these ordinances are important, but how sad 
it is to see large numbers of Baptist churches exalt- 
ing them practically above the spiritual elements of 
Christianity ! 

We can show, as we believe, that every impor- 



BAPTIST CHURCHES APOSTOLICAL. 243 

tant innovation upon the Apostolical church order is 
evil in its tendency, and has been historically evil in 
its results. We could show, for example, if time 
permitted, that the perversion of the idea of the 
nature of baptism into a magical rite, containing in 
itself a means of grace and securing remission of 
sins, led to the belief that without baptism there is 
no salvation. 

This in turn, led to the introduction and the gen- 
eral adoption of infant baptism, and hence to the 
discontinuance of effort to limit church-membership 
to actual believers. 

This practice, in time, greatly facilitated the union 
of Church and State, and the growth of hierarchy, 
with all the corruption inherent in State churches 
and hierarchical churches. 

It is not denied that circumstances may, in certain 
cases, hinder a similar downward development, as a 
result of departure from Xew Testament principles ; 
but such being the tendency, and such the historical 
facts, we cannot be too careful to avoid any depart- 
ure from the principles of Apostolical Christianity, 
however slight it may appear in itself, and however 
expedient it may seem, on a given occasion, to make 
such a departure. 

u The truth is immortal," wrote Dr. Balthazar 
Hiibmaier, the great Baptist of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, on the title-pages of all his books. He thought 
he possessed, and he did possess, the truth. He 



244 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

preached the truth, he lived the truth, he died hero- 
ically at the stake for the truth. The principles that 
he taught were too exalted for his age, He was 
hunted down by Protestant, and burned by Roman 
Catholic, Scribes and Pharisees. But these princi- 
ples — the supreme lordship of Christ, the necessity 
of regenerate church-membership, the independence 
of the local church, absolute freedom of conscience, 
and freedom in manifesting religious thought and 
feeling in religious life and in church organization — ■ 
have, in their marvellous extension and general 
recognition, justified abundantly the faith of this 
man of God. 

It is never really expedient to sacrifice the truth. 
Let us teach the truth, let us live the truth, let us 
die for the truth, if need be ; and our reward will 
not be wanting when we come to stand before Him 
who is the Author of Truth — nay, who is Himself 
the Truth. 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 



BY J. M. STIFLER, D. D., PASTOR FIRST BAPTIST 
CHURCH, NEW HAVEN, CONN. 



"This is a true saying, If a man desire the office of a bishop 
he desireth a good work." I. Timothy iii. 1. 

There was good reason for the writing of the 
words of the text. The condition of things in the 
origin of the church evoked this emphatic utterance 
from the pen of inspiration. The gospel ministry, in 
any such form as we possess it to-day, was just begun. 
Apostles had been busy for years, but bishops and 
elders came later to the oversight of the churches. 
Their function had not attained to the dignity and 
honor that attend it to-day, nor that accrued to it 
long ago, when bishops were the masters of kings, 
and when popes claimed universal authority. When 
the text was written, the churches still existed which 
had emerged fresh and pure from the slums of heath- 
enism, or the darkness of Judaism — emerged perfect 
and clean, like a diamond from the gutter. The 
" work of faith and labor of love " was abundant 
among them. They were self-contained, and had a 
holy self-sufficiency. 

But while they abounded in good works, and were 

245 



246 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

" enriched to all bountifulness " " able also to admon- 
ish one another," they were not complete. They 
had not surveyed the whole round of good works* 
Hence Paul must write such words as in Philippians 
iv. 8: "Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever 
things are honest, whatsoever things are just, what- 
soever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good repute ; if there be 
any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these 
things." And since the office of the bishop came 
to them after they had already exercised the other 
functions of a church, it seems they questioned it. 
The members of the Apostolic churches, possessing 
as they did the holy spirit in a miraculous way, being 
able to edify one another, did not feel the need of a 
mere formal ministry. They could and did exist 
without it. They abounded in good works without 
it. 

How long this pastorless condition of the churches 
prevailed cannot be ascertained. In some cases 
longer, in others not so long, in some perhaps not 
at all. But that it existed is certain. Only in Paul's 
returning missionary tours did he ordain elders in 
the churches called out by the labors of his first 
tour. Titus was sent, as we learn from the epistle 
to him, to ordain elders in churches that existed we 
know not how long before his mission to them. 

And now this pastorless condition, in which the 
word of the Lord prevailed, is the very key to the 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 247 

text. What need of an elder, or an eldership, in 
churches doing the work of the Lord? Is he who 
seeks such an office seeking a good work? Is not 
the service he intends supererogatory, a service 
already being performed by the more than half 
inspired membership ? 

Paul answers such suppositive questions in the 
words of the text. If a man desire the office of a 
bishop, even in churches as complete in themselves 
as these Apostolic ones, he desires a good work. 
The strength of the opposition to the office can be 
guessed in the emphatic little preface to the text : 
" It is a true saying." It calls on the church to hear, 
and though well able to minister to itself, to admit 
and honor the office. Let qualified men hear; and if, 
through doubt or humility, hesitating to enter this 
office, hesitate no longer. It is a good work. If any 
were disposed to despise the youthfulness of Timo- 
thy in his labors in this office, the words of the text 
would be a help to him, and a rebuke to them. 

The text suggests four points, which are also 
clearly brought out in other Scriptures : 

I. First The state of things in which the gospel 
ministry arose. 

II. Second. Some sort of induction into the office 
is implied. 

III. Third. The place of female ministry in the 
work of the church is definitely set forth. 

IV. Fourth. The question of different orders of 
ministry is looked at. 



248 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

I. The text suggests the state of things in the 
midst of which the office of bishop had its birth. 
And an understanding of this original condition will 
shed light on the topic of gospel ministry. Before 
the office was known, the churches already existed. 
Their work and worship was complete. The churches 
arose not for the ministry, but the ministry for the 
churches. The churches had and have an existence 
independent of the office (we do not say of the need) 
of the bishop. The simple fact that the churches of 
Iconium, of Derbe, of Lystra and of Antioch existed 
for a time without elders ( Acts xiv. 23 ), and without 
the presence of an Apostle (and the same seems to 
be true of the churches in Crete, — Titus i. 5), raises 
a number of questions : Who led the worship ? Who 
administered the ordinances ? Or were these duties 
omitted until the appointment of elders ? 

But in the membership of these churches, statedly 
meeting, admonishing and edifying one another 
(Heb. x. 24, 25) must have been men who perceived 
the headless state of affairs, perhaps often the lack 
of order (I. Cor. xiv. 23-40), men whose hearts longed 
to take the oversight, who desired the office of 
bishop. The Apostles, or Apostolic agents like Titus, 
travelling among the churches to ordain elders, 
would soon learn, on coming to each city, who such 
men were. The church already existing for some time 
would have learned to know them and would be able 
to say who had the qualifications for the bishopric 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 249 

(Titus i. 6-9). Or if any church was too dull to 
know them, or felt complete in itself and quietly- 
ignored their superior ministrations, it was instructed 
in this matter. For so we find Paul writing to th.e_ 
Thessalonians : " We beseech you, brethren, to know 
them which labor among you, and are over you in 
the Lord, and admonish you; and to esteem them very 
highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace 
among yourselves. " This passage is worthy of care- 
ful study. It was written a few months after they 
had been called from darkness to light. ( Acts xvii. 
1-9). Timothy had visited them once (I. Thess. iii. 
1 and 9), but hurriedly, and in such a time of perse- 
cution that to ordain elders was impossible. This 
visit, too, was so shortly after their conversion that 
they would all be novices (I. Tim. iii. 6) ; and further- 
more, if the elders had been formally inducted in 
their office, by an Apostle, or any Apostolic agent, 
before the epistle was written, whence the need of 
"beseeching" them now to "know" them? It 
would seem probable, then, that the elders were as 
yet without their appointment, but showing by their 
work their ultimate destination in the organization 
of the church. They were over them " in the Lord," 
to be over them in due time by formal appointment; 
a condition of things which the Thessalonian church 
did not understand, and hence were rejecting their 
coming elders 7 service in a way to disturb harmony. 
And so Paul must write this verse to the end that 
they may "be at peace among themselves." 



250 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

This exhortation to know God's ministers is use- 
ful for ail time, the present especially. The churches 
should recognize the men among them whom God 
has qualified to be overseers. Their divine creden- 
tials are in their hearts. See to it that they are not 
hindered by withholding the church's from their 
hands. 

Such seems to have been the state of things in 
the churches at their origin — for a time without 
elders, not fully recognizing the need of them, and 
not certain that the office was divine. The words of 
the text were necessary. If in any church men 
were desiring the office of a bishop, that desire was 
not to be overlooked by the church, and the office 
was not to be considered unnecessary. Its work 
was good. 

But whence came these men with holy aspirations 
for this as yet but half-acknowledged office ? They 
were in the church, participating in all its privileges, 
its work, its trials, and yet they were something 
more than the standard church member. They prom- 
ised something more. In the appointment of the 
Lord they were " over " the church. Saul, the first 
king of Israel, had the designation, and the anoint- 
ing to his office in secret. Israel was not aware of 
it. Their lot cast subsequently was ultimately not 
theirs. The whole disposing of it was of the Lord. 
(Prov. xvi. 33.) The elders had a secret pre-appoint- 
ment of the Lord. The Scriptures give abundant 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 251 

answer to the question of their source. Eph. iv. 
8-12 gives us their origin. When he ascended on 
high he gave gifts to men. These gifts were ( and 
are ) special, qualifying them for, and warranting 
them to seek, the office of the bishop. It was a gift 
not of nature, but of grace. For the gift is specific- 
ally connected with the ascension of Christ, and his 
triumph at the cross. And not alone of grace, but 
of special and distinguishing grace, so that they who 
received it could be recognized before hands had 
been laid on them, or before they had been formally 
admitted to their office. 

Here, then, is light on what is familiarly termed the 
call to preach. If a man desire. The unconsciously 
held gift will stir up desire in the soul. Again, the 
words that the called, but as yet unrecognized, man 
utters in public or social worship, his prayers and 
his general bearing, will mark him, so that the wise 
and spiritual "know" him, and will perceive that 
already he is " over " them in the appointment of the 
Lord. The gift of special grace within will manifest 
itself without. Hence, for a man to assume this 
office without the special qualifications which con- 
stitute the call is an unholy intrusion like that in 
II. Chronicles xxvi. 16-21. And though the ministry 
may seem to be crowded, it is worthy to ask if we 
should not still pray the Lord of the harvest to send 
forth laborers. For it is those which he sends that 
do his work, and not such as run, no matter how 



252 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

good they may be otherwise, without being divinely 
sent. 

II. Some sort of induction into the bishopric is 
suggested. 

The work and worship of the Apostolic churches 
was conducted for months, and doubtless in some 
cases for years, in a headless fashion. The extraor- 
dinary gifts of the Spirit qualified them for this, and 
the need of special ministry was not recognized at 
once. Furthermore it was not certain everywhere 
that it was right, else why the text f There are hints 
that when offered it was not accepted. A careful 
perusal of John's third epistle will show this. It 
was some order of gospel laborers of whom he 
jsays : "We ought to receive such," the same persons 
whom Diotrephes did not receive. The passage 
already quoted, I. Thess. v. 12, shows that one 
church at least was a little obtuse in the treatment 
of its elders. To the same church it was said : 
"Despise not prophesyings." And almost every 
epistle has some good word for the elders, as if their 
status was not wholly settled. But this must be 
carried in mind, that while to-day the elder or bishop, 
for the words are synonymous, is often not wanted 
on account of the deadness of the church, then he 
found no place from the very opposite state of the 
case — the churches were so alive they ministered to 
themselves. 

Now, in such an atmosphere how was the man, 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 253 

gifted by the ascended Lord and already exercising 
these gifts — how was he to be formally recognized 
as leader without some form? How was he to get 
his office, how his authority ? Preach and rule to 
some extent, and govern he already did. But how 
is he to be known as the preacher and ruler in his 
particular church, where everybody else did the 
same. See I. Cor. xiv. 26, and mark the words 
" every one." It needed the strong hand of an 
Apostle to put him there. Hence Paul qualifies Tim- 
othy for this work, sends a Titus forth directly, and 
often attends to it himself. He writes to Titus: 
" For this cause left I thee in Crete that thou 
shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and 
ordain elders in every city as I had appointed thee." 
It needed a formal setting apart to put a man in the 
office in any other way in which he was not in it 
already. It needed the authority of an Apostle to 
convince the churches that he that desired the office 
was desiring a good work. 

As to the details of that ordination, perhaps the 
Scriptures do not settle everything. But some — the 
vital ones, seem certain. 

First. The special mission of Titus ( see 1st chap- 
ter) did not convey the spiritual validity of the ordi- 
nation. There is no hint in the prescription to him 
or to Timothy that the ordaining agents did more 
than to regulate, to direct, and perhaps to bring 
about the ordination of elders. Titus went to the 



L>54 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

churches not to make bishops. God had already 
made them, and already they had been doing the 
work pertaining to the office, else how was it known 
who was " apt to teach." The gift of ordination per- 
tained to the eldership. Hence it was said to Timo- 
thy : " Neglect not the gift that is in thee which was 
given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the 
hands of the presbytery." It was the will of the 
Holy Ghost to invest him with the office of ruling 
and governing the church, and this will one of the 
prophets uttered at the time of laying on of hands. 
The verse in II. Tim. i. 6 does not conflict with this. 
Paul was present at the ordination ( Acts xvi. 1-3 ) 
and doubtless laid on hands with the elders. The 
elders were appointed on Paul's return in his first 
missionary tour. The ordination of Timothy occurred 
on his second tour. But it must not be forgotten 
that this ordination of Timothy was something 
special, not strictly that of an elder ; and yet the 
elders' hands designated him, just as the hands of the 
prophets and teachers who sent forth Barnabas and 
Saul. 

And now that the eldership conveyed whatever 
of gift was conveyed, what was this but the church 
acting through its representatives, the church con- 
veying the gift ? A man desired the office of bishop, 
for God had qualified him for it, and the church 
through the eldership gave him that office. If there 
was no eldership as yet, a Titus goes forth to estab- 
lish it. 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 255 

Second. As already implied, it is evident that the 
bishops discharged duties pertaining to the office 
before that office was formally given to them. They 
had at first an unpaid and an unrecognized ministry. 
How else could it be known who was apt to teach? 
{I. Tim. iii. 2.) As Titus went from church to church 
in Crete, he would doubtless ask, as he came to each, 
Who among you has shown the qualifications for a 
bishop, " holding fast the faithful word as he hath 
been taught. * * * Able by sound doctrine both 
to exhort and convince the gainsayers ? " (Titus i. 9.) 
Who is apt to teach I Such inquiry would be exactly 
equivalent to our examination, preliminary to ordina- 
tion; and the fact that Paul enjoins that these quali- 
ties are to be looked for, recognizes both God's 
work in the making of the minister and Titus 7 inca- 
pacity to convey the grace to preach. Titus went 
not to prepare a ministry. He went to find one that 
had already evinced its preparation by its known 
and acknowledged works. 

Third. It seems evident that hands would be laid 
on. Acts xiii. 1, 2, 3 ; I. Tim. iv. 14 ; I. Tim. v. 22. 

The second of these Scriptures shows how Timo- 
thy was ordained himself. The third, if it refers to 
ordination, implies unmistakably that imposition of 
hands was already practiced in the setting apart of 
elders. Ellicott, against the authority of Chrysos- 
tom and Theodoret, denies its reference to ordina- 
tion. But Alford shows, and what is still better, the 



256 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

context shows, that it has no other. But it is a fact 
to be noted that nowhere in the Scriptures does an 
Apostle lay hands on an elder. If Titus did it there 
is absolutely no record of it, and this passage, which 
implies certainly that Timothy might do it, also 
implies that it was to be done along with others. 
" Be not partaker of other men's sins." 

Fourth. It would then seem that the power of 
ordination resided in the churches. Their elders 
were all already among them, graciously given and 
qualified of God. They had already exhibited their 
aptness to teach and their fitness for the sacred 
office. Nothing was needed but to grant it to them. 
This was done by themselves under the direction of 
an Apostolic agent, to whom they pointed out their 
own men. Does any one suppose that Titus, or even 
Paul could have placed a man over an Apostolic 
church that shook its head. It must not be forgotten 
that churches felt themselves complete, possessed 
of an authority and dignity equivalent to that of an 
Apostle ; so that Apostles themselves were tried by 
them. Rev. ii. 2. They were instructed to test pro- 
phets. I. John iv. 1. They hesitated not to question 
even Paul. 2 Cor. xi. 16; xiii. 3-6. They were plainly 
instructed in their almost divine dignity. (See I. Cor. 
vi. 2, 3; I.John ii. 27.) One can fancy with what 
righteous indignation they would have spurned the 
attempt to impose the minister of a modern church 
conference upon them. The Apostolic church car- 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY* 257 

ried its vitals within itself. It contained the ministry, 
the ministry did not contain it. 

Here, then, with the condition of the Apostolic 
churches before us, we can see both what was the 
need of and what essential to, ordination. And 
have we not just about that which belongs to the 
service as exhibited in the practice of Baptist 
churches ? Two things would materially help in the 
ordinations of to-day: First, if it was seen just what 
the word means — a recognition and an appointment. 
And when they had ordained them elders. — Acts xiv. 
23. "Who having appointed for them elders." — Hack- 
ett. The word "ordain" savors of Eome and of 
more modern ecclesiasticism. Secondly, if in seek- 
ing the evidences of a call we paid more attention 
to the qualifications accompanying it, " not a novice," 
"apt to teach," "sound doctrine," and all the rest 
that in the epistles to Titus and to Timothy is so 
explicit. That man's desire to be ordained, who has 
not exhibited these qualifications before his brethren- 
should not be hastily allowed, if at all. 

III. The relation of female ministry is definitely 
set forth. If a man desire the office of a bishop. 
And the emphasis is not in the word, for in the orig- 
inal it is indefinite — any one — but most strikingly in 
the context, which goes on to give the bishop's qual- 
ifications entirely in the masculine gender. He must 
be the husband of one wife, having his children in 
subjection. There are no qualifications for a female 

17 



258 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

bishop anywhere. This is the more striking, when 
we remember that, a female deaconship being allowed, 
(Eom. xvi. 1, original), qualifications for the same office 
are given for females, — I. Tim. iii. 11 — a passage 
wholly obscured by translating interpolations. 
" Women in like manner when engaged in the same 
office," is the way Ellicott puts it. 

The New Testament knows no such office as a 
female pastorate, and in express terms forbids it. 
The work of teaching is pointedly limited to men. 
For see I. Cor. xiv. 34, and I.Tim. ii. 12 : "I suffer not 
a woman to teach." But it may be inquired, do not 
such sweeping and general statements exclude women 
from the Sunday-school, condemn female missionaries 
to the heathen, and contradict the plain implications 
to the contrary in other Scriptures. For, said Peter 
in his quotation, Acts ii. 18, " And on my hand-maid- 
ens will I pour out in these days of my Spirit, and 
they shall prophesy," which always includes giving 
instruction. And did not Philip, the evangelist, have 
four daughters, " which did prophesy " ? Acts xxi. 
8, 9. Does not I, Oor. xi. 5, fairly imply that even in 
this very church where it was forbidden, Paul recog- 
nized a lawful prophesying on the part of women ? 
To note three points will do much to reconcile the 
whole, — what is forbidden, and where and why. 
First, what : " I suffer not a woman to teach." The 
word "teach" is not general, else Philip's daughters 
had their gift in vain, the female Sunday-school 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 259 

teacher is in error, and the foreign missionary sister 
is violating God's appointment, and Peter is going 
too far when he says of the hand-maidens : " They 
shall prophesy." The word is specific. " And they 
commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the 
name of Jesus," Acts iv. 18, where it is contrasted 
with speaking. " Teaching and preaching the word, 
Acts xv. 35, where we have again an instructive con- 
trast. In like manner in Rom. xiii. 6-8, the teaching 
is contrasted with prophecy, ministry, exhortation 
and ruling. To forbid teaching does not, in itself, 
forbid any of those works with which it stands here 
in contrast. Christ gave pastors and teachers. The 
two are linked together in Ephesians. And so in 
forbidding teaching, the pastorate is forbidden, noth- 
ing more. There are several parts of music for the 
female voice without singing bass. But in the office 
of teacher she is to be absolutely silent. If it is 
insisted that in Corinth it was said: "Let your 
women keep silence. It is not permitted unto them 
to speak," the second question is raised : where* was 
it forbidden f In the churches. It is not forbidden 
in the informal meetings, as the Sunday-school, the 
prayer meeting. It is not forbidden one female to 
teach others. We do not see that anything but the 
pulpit is denied. For, third, what is the ground of 
the prohibition ? And this will elucidate the whole 
matter. Teaching implies and includes superiority 
and authority. We have seen that the bishop, the 



260 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

teacher, was set over the church as leader or ruler. 
We are told of the elder that " ruled " well. In some 
sense the bishop was made head of the church in 
which he ruled, Now if a woman were put in the 
place of the bishop, she would be head, leader, 
ruler of her own husband, a violation of the law, 
(I. Cor. xiv. 34 ; Gen, iii. 16), a violation of the order 
and intent of creation. I, Tim ii 13, 14. For this 
seems to be the one grand reason of the prohibition, 
that it makes woman the head of the man. It is this 
that makes it a shame for them to speak. But sup- 
pose the woman have no husband ? She has a father, 
it may be, or some one who is head. And then, the 
prohibition gets force, too, not alone from the marital 
relation, but from the order of creation. Adam was 
first formed, then Eve. Man is ever to be first. The 
bishopric, that highest place of honor on earth, 
belongs to him alone. 

IY. Does the office of bishop in the text have any 
similarity with the office bearing the same name in 
modern church building? None whatever. One 
bishop in modern episcopacy implies several churches. 
One New Testament church implies several bishops. 
The modern bishop implies a union of local churches 
under one name and government. The New Testa- 
ment bishop belonged to his own local church, and 
the union of the churches of a state or country in 
one is unknown in Apostolic times. We have not the 
"church of Galatia," "the church of Judea," but the 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 261 

" churches." Each one was separate, independent, 
having no bond of union in itself or beyond itself 
except the possession of a common experience in 
the membership of the redemptive power of Jesus, 
faith in whom was expressed and confessed by bap- 
tism. The churches existed for a time without offi- 
cers. And now, when these come to be bestowed, 
bishops and deacons alone are given. The same 
authority which it took to introduce the elder would 
have been required to promote an officer over him. 
And if that authority was ever exercised, we have 
no record of it. Again, from the qualifications left 
us for church officers, we gather that there were but 
two orders, bishops and deacons. Where in the 
New Testament do we find the qualifications for a 
dean, or a presiding elder, for an arch-bishop or for 
a pope ; where for a class-leader, or a circuit-rider * 
There are rules for just two officers, and to take 
those in Timothy referring to the bishop, and to 
apply them to any one else than the local preacher, 
ruling a single local body, is a palpable misuse of 
them. The New Testament knows but two officers 
for the church of which the bishop is head, but head 
of the local church only. And here he is over men, 
too, his equals in Christ. They do not call him 
master. 

We find qualifications for but two officers. Inci- 
dentally those of an Apostle are mentioned, but in 
such a way as to show that the office was limited to 



262 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the cotemporaries of Jesus. Acts i. 21, 22. In the 
case of Paul, there was a miraculous manifestation 
of the risen Lord, nothing short of which could give 
another Apostle. Prophets and evangelists are men- 
tioned, but are nowhere given any official connection 
with the church. They were only church members, 
having these special gifts, the prophets in more than 
one case being women, to whom the official relations 
of the eldership were denied. 

It is trifling to attempt to break the force of this 
argument from the qualifications by saying that none 
are prescribed for church clerk, church treasurer or 
sexton. These are not church officers, or only so 
much so as the servants of the family,— necessary 
to it, numbered with it, but not having a vital rela- 
tion. 

But the Scriptures speak of both elders and bish- 
ops. They never contrast these words, never conjoin 
them. But they do distinctly identify them. The 
bishop is an elder, as Titus i 5, compared with 7, or 
Acts xx. 17, compared with 28, distincly shows. 

Finally, the Apostolic salutation, in the epistle to 
the Philippians, is instructive, both as to the organi- 
zation of the church, and the relative dignity of the 
church and its officers. The address is as follows : 
"Paul * * to all the saints * * at Philippi 
with the bishops and deacons." He mentions first the 
saints, or church, secondly the bishops, and thirdly 
the deacons. The epistle was not among the earlier 



THE GOSPEL MINISTRY. 263 

ones, as that to the Thessalonians, but written when 
the church in Philippi was fully organized. On this 
passage Dean Alford, himself a Churchman, com- 
ments: "The simple juxtaposition of the officers 
with the members of the church, and indeed their 
being placed after these members, shows, as it still 
seems to me, against Ellicott,m ?oc, the absence of 
hierarchical views such as those in the epistles of 
the Apostolic fathers." When, then, Paul wrote the 
text, he had one of the two officers of Christ's church 
in mind, an officer of the local body only, and pos- 
sessed only of so much authority as gave him the 
front rank of his own brethren in Christ, — a simple, 
beautiful relation, like that of a father in his own 
family. And one of the marvellous features of the 
perversity of the human heart is, that while the spirit 
of Christ is simplifying human governments, lifting 
up the masses and limiting the rulers ; while the 
Lord's prayer, " Our Father which art in heaven," 
is fostering and bringing on a universal brotherhood ; 
in the church in some quarters the opposite tendency 
is at work, and all the machinery of tyranny exists. 
How strange that there is in the world a strong ten- 
dency toward that simple form of government which 
God loves, while in some religious realms the ten- 
dency is the contrary way! — the children of this 
world wiser than the children of light. 



THE DIFFEEENCE BETWEEN A BAPTIST 
CHUKCH AND ALL OTHEE CHUEOHES. 



BY THOMAS HENDERSON PRITCHARD, D.D., PRESI- 
DENT OF WAKE FOREST COLLEGE, N. C. 



" It was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that 
ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once 
delivered unto the saints." — Jude i. 3. 

" No religious denomination has a moral right to a 
separate existence unless it differs essentially from 
others. Ecclesiastical differences ought always to 
spring from profound doctrinal differences. To 
divide Christians, except for reasons of great import, 
is criminal schism. Sects are justifiable only for 
matters of conscience, growing out of clear Scrip- 
tural precept or inevitable logical inference. Human 
speculation, tradition, authority of pope, or council, 
or synod, or conference, or legislature, is no proper 
basis for an organization of Christians. Nothing 
short of the truth of revelation, the authoritative 
force of God's word, rising above mere prejudice, or 
passion, or caprice, can justify a distinct church 
organization." 

We accept this luminous statement of an important 
truth, made by Dr. J. L. M. Curry in a recent premium 

261 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 265 

tract, and claim the right of a Baptist church to exist 
on the ground that it differs from all other churches 
in its constitution, membership, ordinances and doc- 
trines, and that these differences are authorized by 
the Word of God. If other denominations, which 
hold to sprinkling and pouring as baptism, teach 
infant baptism, infant membership, and open com- 
munion, can justify themselves in maintaining a sepa- 
rate ecclesiastical organization, then much more can 
the Baptists, who differ from all in many essential 
and important points, vindicate their right to exist- 
ence, and free themselves from the charge of bigotry, 
schism and intolerance. I propose to answer to-day 
the question, How do Baptists differ from other 
Christian denominations I I will first present a brief 
summary of our distinctive doctrines, as given by 
Hiscox in his Baptist Church Directory, p. 118, and 
then discuss the principles on which they are based: 

" First. — As to Baptism, we believe that immersion 
or clipping is the only way of administering this ordi- 
nance as taught in the New Testament, and practiced 
by Christ and his Apostles, and the only way in 
which Christians can obey the command to be bap- 
tized. Consequently, the mode is essential to the 
ordinance, and nothing but immersion is baptism. 
Therefore, persons poured upon or sprinkled upon 
are not baptized at all." 

u Second. — As to the subjects for baptism, we believe 
that the only suitable persons to receive this ordi- 



266 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

nance are those who have exercised a saving faith in 
Christ, and are regenerated by the Holy Spirit. 
Consequently, unconscious infants ought not to be y 
and cannot be scripturally baptized, since they can 
neither exercise, nor profess that faith in Christ ; 
and to baptize such is contrary to the teachings and 
practice of Christ and his Apostles, and most hurt- 
ful and injurious to the spiritual welfare of the 
children so baptized." 

" TJiird. — As to the subjects for church member- 
ship, we believe that such persons only as are 
truly regenerated, and have been scripturally bap- 
tized on a profession of faith in Christ, can prop- 
erly become members of a Christian church. Con- 
sequently, neither persons sprinkled, instead of being 
baptized, nor unconscious infants, nor unregenerated 
persons, are suitable to become members of a church. 
To receive the unregenerate to its fellowship would 
destroy the distinction between the Church and the 
world, and contradict the entire spirit and genius of 
the gospel." 

" Fourth. — As to the subjects for communion, we 
believe that the Lord ? s Supper is to be partaken by 
members of the church alone, being such persons as 
are regenerated and baptized on a profession of their 
faith in Christ, and are walking in the faith and fel- 
lowship of the gospel. Consequently, neither unre- 
generate persons, nor unbaptized persons, thorgh 
regenerate, nor persons walking disorderly and 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 267 

contrary to the gospel, even though baptized, can 
properly be invited to partake of this ordinance. 
Therefore, Baptists do not invite sprinkled members 
of Pedobaptist churches to their communion, because 
such persons are not scripturally baptized ; nor 
do they admit immersed members of Pedobaptist 
churches, because such persons are walking dis- 
orderly as the disciples of Christ, by holding mem- 
bership in, and walking in fellowship with churches 
which receive sprinkling instead of baptism, thereby 
sanctioning and sustaining a perversion of Christ's 
ordinance and a disobedience to his commands. For 
the same reason, they decline to commune in Pedo- 
baptist churches, as being contrary to good order." 

" Fifth. — As to church government, we believe that 
each separate and individual church is entirely inde- 
pendent of all other churches, persons and bodies 
of men, either civil or ecclesiastical, and is to be 
governed by its own members alone, without aid or 
interference of any other person or persons what- 
ever. Consequently, churches governed by popes, 
bishops, synods, presbyteries, conferences, or in any 
other way than by their own members directly and 
exclusively, are not constituted on the model of the 
primitive churches, nor governed according to the 
gospel rule." 

" Sixth. — As to the scriptural officers of a church, 
we believe there are but two, viz : the pastor, called 
in the New Testament " bishop," or " overseer," 



268 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

" presbyter " or " elder," and deacons. Consequently, 
those churches which admit more than two officers 
or orders in the ministry, have departed from the 
gospel rule and the construction of the primitive 
church." 

This plain statement of our principles shows 
clearly that there is a wide difference between a 
Baptist church and all other churches — a difference 
which affects, not a few unimportant points, but 
which enters into the very constitution of a gospel 
church, and which, from the very nature of the case, 
places the Baptists in opposition to all other profess- 
ing Christians. The world, therefore, has a right to 
ask, By what authority do you array yourselves 
against all Christendom in maintaining these doc- 
trines ? The question is pertinent and reasonable, 
and I will endeavor to answer it. In the first place, 
I reply, that it is not because of sectarian bigotry. 
There is a spirit of sectarianism among us, as there 
is and must be among all denominations, so long as 
they maintain a separate existence; and a certain 
measure of this feeling is by no means to be con- 
demned, though when carried to excess it is hurtful 
to Christian character. I am ready to grant, too, 
that the Baptists are under greater temptation than 
other Christians to cultivate the spirit of sectarian- 
ism unduly, by reason of the fact that they stand 
alone in maintaining their principles, and necessarily 
antagonize all other churches ; but I am at the same 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 269 

time very sure that I speak the truth, when I declare 
that we cherish as kindly and as Christianly a spirit 
towards other denominations as they do towards us, 
or as they do towards each other. I venture to 
assert that there is to-day as much, if not more, good 
feeling between myself and the pastors of the Pedo- 
baptist churches of this city, and between this church 
and the churches they represent, as among them- 
selves ; and this notwithstanding we maintain close 
communion, while they enjoy the gracious influence 
of open communion, usually regarded as an unfailing 
source of union and good fellowship. It is, therefore, 
no want of Christian charity which makes us hold 
these doctrines. Nor is it because ought of earthly 
honor or earthly interest ever has or ever will accrue 
to us in holding this exclusive and independent posi- 
tion among the Christians of the world, for they that 
hold these doctrines must suffer persecution. Their 
maintenance in all ages past has cost untold sacrifi- 
ces of treasure and of blood. History will prove 
that of all the people who have suffered for con- 
science sake the Baptists have been the victims of 
the most unremitting and relentless persecution. 
The first and the last martyrs who sealed their faith 
with their blood on British soil were Baptists ; and it 
is even true now, that while many of their principles 
have fought their way to an honorable recognition 
among the best thinkers of the world, "this is still 
the sect everywhere spoken against," as in the days 
of the Apostles. 



270 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

. £To, my brethren, it is not that we do not hold the 
members of other churches to be Christians ; nor 
that we do not esteem them for their works of faith 
and labors of love ; not that we do not heartily co- 
operate with them in many departments of Christian 
labor ; not that we would not profoundly rejoice if 
we could all see eye to eye and face to face, and 
think and speak the same thing, and thus form a 
united army of " the sacramental hosts of God's 
elect " ; but because we believe the great principle of 
respect for God's holy Word compels us to differ 
from those we love, and constrains us to maintain 
and vindicate what we regard as important and 
imperishable truth. 

And this brings us to the great cardinal principle 
of all Baptist churches : 

First, — The Sovereignty of God's Holy Word, We 
hold that the Bible is the supreme, the sufficient, the 
exclusive and absolute rule in all matters of religious 
faith and practice, and it is a rigid adherence to this 
principle which separates us from all other churches, 
Eomish and Protestant, and constrains us to hold 
and propagate at all hazards, the doctrines which dis- 
tinguish us as a people. 

To quote authorities (and this I do freely, for my 
object in this discourse is usefulness, not originality), 
the great Dr. Francis Wayland says, in his Principles 
and Practices of the Baptists, page 85 : " We propose 
to take as our guide in all matters of religious belief 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 271 

and practice, the New Testament, the whole New 
Testament, and nothing but the New Testament. 
Whatever we find there we esteem as binding upon 
the conscience. What is not there is not binding. 
No matter by what reveuence for antiquity, by what 
tradition, by what councils, by what consent of any 
branches of the church or of the whole church at 
any particular period, an opinion or practice may be 
sustained, if it be not sustained by the command of 
Christ or his Apostles, we value it only as an opinion 
or a precept of man, and we treat it accordingly. We 
disavow the authority of man to add to or take from 
the teachings of inspiration, as they are found in the 
New Testament. Hence, to a Baptist all appeals to 
the Fathers, or to antiquity, or to general practice in 
early centuries, or in later times, are irrelevant and 
frivolous. He looks for divine authority as his guide 
in all matters of religion, and if this be not produced, 
his answer is, " In vain do ye worship me, teaching 
for doctrines the commandments of men." The same 
sentiment is admirably put by Dr. Curry in the tract 
already referred to. 

u Baptists differ fundamentally from Pedobaptists 
in practically adhering to the New Testament as the 
sufficient, the exclusive, and the absolute rule of 
faith and practice. The soul of Baptist churches is 
submission and conformity to the New Testament. 
Individual liberty is to be regulated by divine law. 
The end of revelation is the limit of moral and relig- 



272 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ious duty. Loyalty to Christ must in all things take 
precedence to personal inclination. The New Testa- 
ment is not to be supplemented by tradition, nor the 
syllabi of popes, nor the decrees of councils or syn- 
ods, nor by the acts of civil government, nor by 
motives of personal convenience, nor by parental 
constraint. No Christian can take as obligatory 
upon his conscience the belief or practice of any 
person, family or church, or nation, except as sus- 
tained by the Word of God." We know that other 
denominations claim that they, too, take the Bible as 
their only guide in all matters of religion. We do 
not question their sincerity, but at the same time we 
are obliged to regard them as having forsaken this 
great principle in respect to points cited as repre- 
senting our distinctive tenets. 

In maintaining these principles we feel that we are 
under the most sacred obligations to protest against 
the errors of Protestantism itself, and that God calls 
us to a responsibility and imposes upon us a dignity 
such as he put upon Luther, Calvin, and Knox, and 
other reformers of the sixteenth century. 

II. Closely allied to this high doctrine of regard 
for God's holy Word as exalted to supreme authority ? 
and indeed growing out of it, is another, very dear 
to Baptists, which is "the personality of all religious 
duties " — the individual responsibility of every man 
for the performance of his own duty. The Old Tes- 
tament dealt with man in families and nations ; the 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 273 

language of the Xew Testament is, " every man must 
give account of himself unto God." Daniel Web- 
ster once remarked that " death brought every man 
to his individuality." So does the Christian religion. 
In the peformance of a religious duty there can be 
no sponsor or proxy, Iso one, however close his 
relationship, can answer for another. 

Each human soul is responsible to God for the 
discharge of its own duty. Every one must repent 
for himself, believe for himself, and obey for himself. 
The faith and obedience of my parents or friends 
will not avail for me, and u compulsory or involun- 
tary baptism is no more allowable than compulsory 
or involuntary taking of the Lord's Supper." If 
faith, prayer, obedience of any kind, is an individual 
duty, then baptism, which, in the Scripture is always 
joined with faith, is also an individual duty, and, 
therefore, the baptism of an unconscious, unbelieving 
infant is a violation of this principle, since it not only 
lacks the elements of personal faith and personal 
obedience, but robs the child, when it can believe, 
of the unspeakable privilege of personally obeying 
a command of Christ, as baptism is an ordinance to 
be administered but once. There are duties, very 
important religious duties, which parents owe to 
their children ; they should not only feed, clothe and 
educate them, but bring them up in the nurture and 
admonition of the Lord, and by constant prayer and 
earnest effort seek to secure their salvation ; but, as 

18 



274 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the Scriptures do not require them to repent, 
believe and be regenerated for their children, and 
as, in the nature of the case, it is impossible for them 
to perform these personal acts for their offspring, so 
baptism, which is equally a personal act, cannot be 
performed by a parent for a child. 

III. A legitimate deduction from this principle of 
the personality of religious duty gives us the sub- 
lime doctrine of soul-liberty— freedom to worship 
God according to the dictates of each man's con- 
science. If each human soul alone is responsible to 
God for the discharge of its duty, then no human 
authority has a right to come between that soul and 
its God, and therefore, all interference with the 
faith and practice of man in matters of religion, 
whether that interference be from human govern- 
ment, parental authority, or religious teachers, under 
the name of priests, pastors, or what-not, is a viola- 
tion of the sacred rights of conscience, and not to 
be tolerated. Many think this doctrine of religious 
liberty the outgrowth of modern Christianity— a 
development not so much of the Gospel as of expe- 
rience and enlarged Christian liberality. So far as 
civil governments are concerned it is certainly a 
new doctrine, for Judge Story says, " In the code 
of laws established by the Baptists in Ehode Island 
we read, for the first time since Christianity ascended 
the throne of the Caesars, the declaration that con- 
science should be free, and men should not be pun- 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 275 

ished for worshipping God in the way they are per- 
suaded he requires." But in religion it is not a new 
doctrine. The New Testament plainly lays down the 
principle that while taxes and tributes belong to 
human governments, conscience and souls belong to 
God alone ; and this doctrine the Baptists have 
always steadily maintained. As Chevalier Bunsen, 
for twelve years the esteemed ambassador of Prussia 
at the Court of England, and a Lutheran, declares, 
"the principles and polity of the Baptist church 
will not allow it to persecute;" while the great 
American historian, George Bancroft, has said, 
" Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom of 
mind, was from the first the trophy of the Bap- 
tists." For seventeen hundred years the Baptists 
stood alone in the world as the advocates of relig- 
ious liberty. Papists and Protestants, Lutherans 
and Calvinists, Episcopalians and Presbyterians, all 
repudiated this doctrine as the dreadful dogma of 
the despised and persecuted Ana-Baptists. But 
while all hierarchs and State religions have sought 
to destroy this principle, it has never been extinct. 
Handed down from generation to generation; enter- 
tained, sometimes for ages in succession, only by 
those who were cursed as heretics ; driven from 
country to country by the cruel hand of persecu- 
tion—its history all gory with the blood of the saints, 
it is vital in every part, and has been preserved by a 
gracious Providence, and will live on to bless the 
world " till the last syllable of recorded time." 



276 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

IV. The twin brother of religious liberty — off- 
spring of the same cradle— is another principle ever 
held sacred by the Baptists : the right of private 
judgment in interpreting God's Word. If the Bible 
is our supreme and exclusive rule of duty, and if 
each individual is personally accountable for the 
discharge of that duty, then it follows, as a logical 
necessity, that every man has a right to read and 
interpret the Bible for himself. " The Baptists have 
always held that the Bible was given by God, not 
to a priesthood, to be by them diluted, compounded 
and adulterated, and then retailed by the penny- 
worth to the people, but on the contrary, that the 
whole revelation in all its abundance of blessings, 
with all its solemn warnings and its exceeding great 
and precious promises, is a communication from God 
to every individual of the human race. It is given 
to the minister in no higher, better or different sense 
than it is given to every one who reads it. Every 
one to whom it comes is bound to study it for him- 
self and govern his life by it. 

"The wisdom of Omniscience has tasked itself to 
render this communication plain, so that he that 
runs may read, and that the way-faring man, though 
a fool, need not err therein. The Holy Spirit, more- 
over, has been sent to assist every one who will, 
with an humble and devout heart, seek to under- 
stand it. With such a revelation and such spiritual 
aid, every man is required to determine for himself 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 277 

what is the will of God. He has, therefore, no 
excuse for disobedience. He cannot plead before 
God that he could not know His will. He cannot 
excuse himself on the ground that his minister 
deceived him. The revelation was made to the man 
himself, and the means were provided for his under- 
standing it. Every one of us must give an account 
for himself unto God." 

This extract I have quoted at length from Way- 
land's "Principles and Practices of the Baptists," 
page 132, for two reasons — first, because the idea is 
admirably presented, and also because, as the opin- 
ion of one of our great representative men, it car- 
ries with it more weight than any utterance of my 
own. 

Having thus stated our doctrines, and the princi- 
ples on which they are founded, I propose to pre- 
sent, in closing, several conclusions which seem to 
me to be legitimately derived from the principles 
discussed. 

First. — The Christian religion is the religion of a 
book. That book is its supreme law, and contains all 
we know or need to know of that religion. Whatever 
precept, doctrine or ordinance is found in that book 
has authority to bind men's consciences in matters 
of religion. Whatever is not in that book is only of 
human origin and is not binding upon men's hearts 
and consciences ; therefore, we stand upon a founda- 
tion of solid rock when we take that book as our 



278 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

only rule of faith and practice. We are often asked 
what is the creed, confession of faith, or standard 
authority of the Baptist churches J To this ques- 
tion we have but one reply : " The New Testament 
is our rule of faith and practice ; we have no creed, 
confession of faith, book of discipline, book of com- 
mon prayer or book of church law but this." If 
other denominations reply to this answer — " We, too, 
take the Bible for our guide, but we have also auth- 
orized confessions, creeds and formularies, which 
have been prepared by our wisest men and adopted 
by our highest ecclesiastical tribunals, and to a 
greater or less degree all our members subscribe to 
and are governed by them. Indeed we see not how 
we could preserve our unity and protect ourselves 
from serious errors and divisions, if we had not some 
authorized standards ; " — to all this we reply, that we 
cannot recognize the authority of any earthly tri- 
bunal, and the nature of our polity forbids the adop- 
tion of any such standards. Every church, therefore, 
when it expresses its own belief, expresses simply 
the faith of its own members. We believe in the 
perfect independence of every church of Christ. If 
several churches understand the Scriptures in the 
same way, and adopt the same confession of faith, 
then they simply say thereby that they understand 
God's Word as teaching the same truths, and they 
adopt them because they believe they accord with 
the Holy Scriptures, and not because any tribunal 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 279 

other than themselves has given such interpreta- 
tion to the Scriptures. 

The authority is still in the Scriptures ; and we 
repeat with emphasis, that we believe the Scriptures 
are a revelation, not to popes, or bishops, or presby- 
ters, or pastors, or to councils, synods, assemblies, 
or conferences, but to each individual man, to be read 
and interpreted by himself and for his own guidance. 
And, strange as it may seem to others, — several Pedo- 
baptist churches have expressed their surprise to me 
at the fact — we have never felt the need of author- 
ized standards and confessions of faith to preserve 
our unity and secure us from division and heresy. 
The truth is, there does not now, nor ever did exist, 
a denomination of Christians, which has for so long 
a period, and with such entire unanimity, held the 
same doctrines as the Baptists. It is a most extra- 
ordinary fact that the confessions of faith put forth 
by the Baptists in the days of Henry Till., who 
began to reign in 1509, and later, in the times of 
Cromwell and Charles II., are almost identical with 
those now generally entertained by Baptist churches. 
Authorized standards, enforced with pains and pen- 
alties of the most fearful kind, have not secured 
uniformity of faith to the Church of Borne, nor pro- 
tected this great hierarchy from heresy and schism. 
Xor have the Episcopalians, the Lutherans, the Pres- 
byterians, or the Methodist churches been more for- 
tunate in this particular ; while the Baptists have at 



280 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the same time preserved their liberty and enjoyed 
the blessing of harmony. And why should it not be 
so ? If the Bible is given to every man to be read and 
understood for himself, why should we be surprised 
that the greatest amount of unity attainable among 
men has been produced by a resort, not to human 
standards, which are fallible, but to the infallible 
Word of God, which we know is true, and which 
affords the most solid basis of unity to be found 
among men t 

The second remark I wish you to note is that the 
reliance upon the pure Word of God has not only 
been the means of preserving us from divisions, 
but it has preserved us from error as well, and 
reserved to us a purer faith than that of any other 
people under heaven. Do any object to the asser- 
tion of such high claims on our part, because we 
have numbered among our members not many of 
the great and learned of this world % We reply by 
saying that, doubtless, we owe our singularly pure 
faith to the fact that we have not had such guides to 
follow. As another has well said, u Our fathers for 
the most part, were plain and unlearned men. They 
had no learned authorities to lead them astray. They 
mingled in no aristocratic circles whose overwhelm- 
ing public sentiment might crush the first buddings 
of earnest and honest inquiry. As little children 
they took up the Bible, supposing it to mean just 
what it said, and willing to practice just what it 



BAPTIST AND OTHER CHURCHES. 281 

taught. Having nowhere else to look, they looked 
up in humility to the Holy Spirit to teach them the 
meaning of the Word of God, and they were not 
disappointed. It was thus that they arrived at truth 
which escaped the learned and the intellectually 
mighty." 

Finally, brethren, consider the exhortation of the 
Apostle that you should earnestly contend for the 
faith, once for all, delivered to the saints. The 
principles we have here discussed constitute our 
peculiar inheritance as a people. In my judgment, 
they bring with them a dignity, and involve a respon- 
sibility, such as God bestows upon no other denom- 
ination of Christians. These principles are the hope 
of the world. They constitute the impregnable 
foundation whereon all forms of religious error, 
whether Papal or Protestant, Pagan or Scientific, 
can be encountered and overcome. Let us hold 
them with a tenacity, esteem them with a reverence, 
and circulate them with an energy and enterprise 
such as never distinguished the Propagandists of 
Borne, in the days of their greatest prosperity. To 
do this, we must understand these principles and 
appreciate their unspeakable importance. The great 
German, Krummacher, said some years ago to Dr. 
Sears, " You Baptists have a future." 

May the God of all truth keep us true to these 
great and glorious doctrines, and give us grace that 
we may ever be faithful to the honorable trusts com- 



282 BAPTIST DOCTRIENS. 

mitted to our charge. Let us be careful, however, 
always and everywhere, that we contend for those 
principles in the proper spirit. The truth we must 
speak, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, 
but it should be spoken in love. We have no right to 
discharge one duty by violating another in the spirit 
in which we do it. As for myself, I have never been 
able to see why a man should cease to be a Christian 
gentleman because he was a Baptist, or cease to love 
Christians of other denominations because we differ 
from them. Of these three, faith^hope and charity y 
the greatest, God says, is charity. 



THE MULTIPLICITY OF DENOMINATIONS 
AN EVIL. 



BY REV. J. B. GAMBRELL, CLINTON, MISS. 



" They have healed also the hurt of the daughter of my peo- 
ple slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace." 
Jer. vi. 14. 

Taking these words as suggestive, I shall proceed 
directly to the discussion of a matter which has 
long appeared to my mind to be of grave concern to 
all Christian people. It requires no argument to 
convince Bible-readers that the first churches had a 
common faith, as they had also a common Lord and 
a common baptism. 

At the beginning there was unity in belief and 
practice. This is clear upon the face of the inspired 
records, and it is equally clear that it was the will of 
our Lord that this happy state of things should 
continue. A caution was given against those who 
caused divisions contrary to the doctrines of Christ. 
Our Saviour prayed for the unity of his disciples. 

The whole tenor of the New Testament scriptures 
strongly indicates unity. But in the course of time 
changes came. Instead of visible bodies known as 
the churches of Christ, all holding the same doctrines 
and practicing the same things, there are hundreds 



284 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

of schismatic bodies, each with its special doctrines 
and peculiar forms of worship. The heresy of 
schism is not only acquiesced in by great multitudes 
of professing Christians, but it has been elevated into 
a doctrine and boldly proclaimed from many a pulpit. 
The present state of things is extolled as tending 
mightily to the conversion of the world. This is the 
popular view, and I am aware that to take a strong 
stand against it will bring upon me the charge of 
bigotry, narrowness, etc. Nevertheless I have stern 
convictions upon the subject, and taking all risks I 
shall write on the question as the Lord helps me. 

" The Multiplicity of Denominations an Evil" is 
what I shall attempt to show. Taking the text as a 
guide I shall notice — 

I. The injury inflicted upon the cause of Christ by 
the multiplicity of denominations. 

II. The pleas for divisions, insufficient, unreason- 
able and unscriptural. 

III. The impossibility of a settled peace under 
existing circumstances. 

I. Under this head let us in the first place look at 
the mangled form of truth. The Scriptures present 
a perfect body of divinity, grand but simple. It was 
constructed and rounded out under the master hand 
of Deity. It is perfect. And more, it is exactly 
suited to the wants of our race. It needs no emen- 
dations nor reconstructions. And to realize the 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 285 

most perfect unity it is only necessary that all men 
humbly accept the simple system of truth revealed 
in the Scriptures. This has not been done. From 
very early times down through all the ages a process 
of adding to and taking from has been going on. 
Hence the various denominations of to-day. This is 
historically true, beyond dispute. The Romish hier- 
archy is the slow growth of centuries, mainly the 
work of menh hands. Other sects around us have a 
kindred history, as might be shown did time and occa- 
sion allow. They all have some truth. Let us thank 
God for that ! Yes and I will thank God that even 
in the Eomish system there is truth, saving truth. 
The foundation rock is there in the doctrine of the 
divinity of Jesus which Catholics hold. It is fearfully 
overlaid by tradition and superstition, but it is there, 
and again I thank God ! I will add that it is my 
hope and belief that in Rome even and all her 
Protestant branches, there are many of God's own 
elect people. But while all these sects hold truth, 
they do not hold all the truth, and they maintain 
much that is not truth. Thus the Divine system- of 
truth has been mangled. Will any one say there is 
no harm in all this. He would be a daring man who 
would do so. A traveler, writing from Rome, laments 
that the petty nobility of that city irreverently tear 
down the magnificent old temples and take the 
stones to mix with other material in the construction 
of their private residences. And just so have men 



286 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

done with God's grand temple of truth. This can 
not be right. Such a procedure is attended by the 
most serious consequences and deserves the gravest 
censure. It is a work in which we will have no part 
and to which we will give no sanction. 

But let us pass to notice that these divisions 
obstruct the course of truth. I accord to ministers 
of other denominations — many of them — the sin- 
cerest desire to forward the cause of our common 
Saviour. This is done with the utmost pleasure, and 
it detracts nothing from what I am about to say. 
These good men are hindered by the errors of their 
own systems. There have been Christ-loving, soul- 
loving preachers in the Eomish church, who sought 
earnestly to bring the truth savingly near the hearts 
of the people. But their congregations were wrap- 
ped about with the grave-clothes of ritualism. They 
fought bravely, but the sword of truth was encased 
in a lifeless formalism, and could not cut its way to 
the heart. All error is a hindrance, as all truth is a 
help. It is painful to see good men struggling with 
their own errors. Take the English church : it has 
much precious truth in its creed, but this is neutral- 
ized in large measure by much error. It is so 
everywhere. Even our Presbyterian brethren, with 
a doctrinal base all of pure granite, are embarrassed 
by their views of infant baptism and other kindred 
doctrines. A man who is bound to maintain that 
baptism is the seal of the covenant can not so power- 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 287 

fully enforce the doctrine of salvation wholly by the 
sovereign grace of God. 

And more: whatever tends to hinder the free 
preaching of all truth in due proportion, must be an 
evil. The multiplicity of denominations has this 
tendency. In many places it is very unpopular to 
preach upon certain doctrines concerning which the 
sects are not agreed. Although clearly in the Bible, 
they are put under ban by a misguided public senti- 
ment, lest the preaching of them should give offense. 
Many a man, too weak to stand against the preva- 
lent sentiment, yields. The temptation to be silent 
is great, and the voice of truth is smothered. 
Men, who have been set for the defense of the gos- 
pel, speak with bated breath, because there are those 
before them who would take it as a personal unkind- 
ness, and an attack on their denomination, if the 
whole truth should be spoken plainly. Many a man 
who sees clearly that salvation must be entirely by 
grace, will not tell dying sinners so in unmistakable 
terms, because of the Arminian element in his con- 
gregation. There is a nervousness in pew and 
pulpit which is not favorable to the advance of 
scriptural views. Why! in many places certain 
denominations have pre-empted the ground, and it 
is held improper to go there and preach as the 
Scriptures most clearly teach. 

Again : downright opposition to the truth is an- 
other evil growing out of the multiplicity of denom- 



288 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

inations. Truth is exclusive. It will form no alli- 
ance with error; nor will it agree to a truce with 
heresy. From this inherent disposition of truth it 
follows that often it must be crushed to make room 
for that which is not the truth. It is no part of my 
plan to discuss baptism in this article, but I will 
allude to the baptismal controversy for an illustra- 
tion of the truth of the statement just made. It is 
no more than just to say, that if ever any question 
ought to be regarded as settled beyond doubt, it is 
that which now so much disturbs the world. By 
every proof, immersion is the act which Christ and 
his Apostles both taught and practiced. Yet in how 
many ways is this divine institution attacked 1 Ev- 
ery theory is invented which tends to subvert it. 
Eidicule and even the charge of indecency are 
employed to destroy this institution of the gospel 
and make room for innovations. 

Other truths have fared no better. How much the 
cause of Christ has been impeded by such opposi- 
tion to his truth no one can know. I do not mean to 
say that men have wantonly opposed the truth, but 
only that they have been under the influence of a 
strong denominational bias, and so have done what 
they otherwise would not have done. The evil 
effects, however, are the same. 

I have said that the existence of conflicting sects 
prevents the free preaching of the truth. Look at 
the other side of the question. The multiplicity of 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 2&.) 

denominations greatly promotes the preaching of 
heresy. Men will propagate the creed of their 
church, and that, too, without taking any great pains, 
as a rule, to find out whether the creed has the sanc- 
tion of the Scripture. Now, no one can fail to know 
that where there are so many differences there is no 
little heresy. Things differing from each other can 
not be equal to the same thing. All are not right; 
all can not be right. There are, beyond dispute, 
grave heresies abroad, and these heresies are the 
life of the sects. Take from Eome her " Infallibility 
dogma," her " Baptismal Eegeneration, n etc., and 
she would be Eome no more. And so, if what is 
unscriptural were taken from all, there would be a 
great deal accomplished toward unity. But with 
what energy do preachers uphold the inventions of 
men. How earnestly, even bitterly, do men contend 
for denominational peculiarities unknown to Apos- 
tolic times, and how blind are many to all reason. I 
suppose, if I say that a full half of all the preaching 
done in the world is in support of denominational 
dogmas for which there is no scriptural warrant, you 
would hardly doubt it. 

Let us reflect for a few moments upon the dif- 
ficulties thrown in the way of the ungodly by the 
multiplicity of denominations, each with its peculiar 
teachings. Many a time I have gone to an ungodly 
man to urge him to seek Christ, and have been met 
with something like this. " I hear so many different 

19 



290 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

things, that I don't know which is right. Sometimes 
I think they are all wrong, and that my chance is 
about as good as any." The world is confused, and 
no wonder it is. Not long ago I was assisting in a 
protracted meeting. There was a young man attend- 
ing the meeting, who seemed to be under deep con- 
cern for his soul. We tried to point him directly to 
Christ for salvation. Others advised him to join 
their church, telling him that he would be more 
likely to be converted in that way. Others still 
urged him to be baptized right away, assuring him 
that in this act of obedience his sins would be 
washed away. There were still others who told him 
of the power of the church to do what was needful 
for him. The poor man, confused, went back to the 
world, and is now utterly hardened. This is only 
one case of thousands. 

Now, just for a little time think how the path of 
obedience is blocked up before the feet of young 
converts by denominational influences. A person 
gives his heart to Jesus, and wishes at once to obey 
his dear Lord and Saviour. In the Scriptures the 
path of duty is very plain, but he is not sent to the 
Bible to learn his duty. He is told to go with his 
family, or to consult his convenience, or he is urged 
by one to do this, and by another to do that. Confu- 
sion is spread around him. Maybe he goes to his 
Bible and reads the simple law of Jesus touching- 
baptism, the first public Christian act. He sees his 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 291 

duty ; but he is not let alone to perform it. If he 
cannot be argued out of his conception of the 
meaning of the command, he may be persuaded that 
he need not obey it, seeing that it is not essential. If 
he is a minor, or if the subject is a daughter or a 
wife, sterner measures may be employed. This is no 
fancy picture. 

I must just mention here that, under the influence 
of sectarian zeal, the Word of God is trampled under 
foot of men, and the authority of the Highest set at 
naught. In proof of this, I need only refer to the 
hundreds who readily confess that they believe 
immersion to be of divine origin, but who, neverthe- 
less, refuse to leave their denomination to obey 
Christ. Are there not some such among my readers ? 
I must call your attention to another point which, to 
my mind, is important. By the injection of error 
into the religious world, we are called upon to repel 
it. There are some men among us who seem greatly 
to enjoy this business. They are properly called 
" heresy hunters," and, so far as appearances go, they 
would be extremely miserable if the whole world 
were to come suddenly right. As for preaching 
Christ simply, they seem not to have been called to 
do that. The denominational wars have given us a 
race of theological pugilists from whom we may well 
pray in the language of the prayer-book, " Good 
Lord, deliver us." But, after all, error must be met! 
Straightforward, peace-loving men are often com- 



292 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

pelled to leave a work they love better, to repel the 
attacks of error upon the citadel of truth. The 
necessity is thrust upon us, and often we must leave 
off building the walls to repel the enemy. Thus time 
and effort are lost, and, what is still more serious, 
often an unholy spirit is fostered. I verily believe 
the low state of religion in many places is to be 
attributed to denominational wars, which have been 
warmer and longer, perhaps, than was necessary. 

In the next place, I must briefly call your attention 
to the untold waste caused by the multiplicity of 
denominations. Take almost any village of a thou- 
sand inhabitants, and you will see from five to six 
churches. These have generally, with much incon- 
venience, built houses of worship, and are maintaining 
a sickly existence. As many ministers, as churches, 
address handsful of people, for which they receive a 
mere pittance. The strength of these bodies, in many 
cases, is wasted in strife among themselves, instead 
of being directed unitedly upon the ungodly in the 
community. 

Now, I ask, in all reason, what is the use of this 
waste! Let us suppose that instead of all these 
churches, there was one, with one house and one 
minister, preaching the truth, all the truth, and 
nothing but the truth, and that all the people of God 
were united in every good word and work. How 
much better it would be for that community. And 
then, think of those other men going out to preach 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 293 

the same truth to the destitute. On this plan, how 
quickly could the gospel be sent to every community 
on the face of the earth ! 

This is an intensely practical point. It is a matter 
that ought to lie with ponderous weight upon the 
conscience of the Christian public. The present 
state of things is wrong, radically wrong. 

The last point that I will mention uuder this head 
is the promotion of infidelity by the multiplicity of 
denominations. Our Saviour prayed that his disciples 
might be one, even as he and his Father are one, that 
the world might believe that his Father had sent him. 
There is a powerful force in unity to strengthen faith ; 
there is a powerful force in division to weaken faith. 
The prayer of Christ teaches this truth, and reason 
and observation confirm it. Not all the avowed infi- 
dels in the world can inflict so deadly a wound upon 
the faith of the age as Christians and professed 
Christians are doing by their open divisions. Their 
diverse teachings, open strife, petty jealousies, palp- 
able denials of the doctrines of Christ, and the 
changes which they take to themselves the liberty 
of making in the divine order of things, act disas- 
trously upon the highest interests of the world. We 
have but glanced at the evils growing out of a multi- 
plicity of denominations. Time would fail us to 
enumerate all of them, or to adequately discuss 
them. But let us pass on to notice that : — 



294 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

II. The pleas for division are insufficient, unreasonable 
and unscriptural. There are many such pleas. Only 
a few of the more prominent can be mentioned here. 

" There is variety in all the works of God, and it is 
reasonable that there should be variety in religion." 
This is very specious. If God had not prescribed a 
religion, I would agree that endless variety might be 
right. As it is, there is no serious objection to 
variety in the mere circumstances of worship. If 
my Episcopal friend wishes to preach in a gown and 
surplice, I will not deny him the pleasure, though it 
is not at all to my taste. That is a circumstantial 
matter, and differences concerning it amount to 
nothing important. But when my friend teaches 
"baptismal regeneration," etc., then we must part, 
for the point is vital. Yet we cannot hold different 
views on that question without sin on one side or the 
other. If baptismal regeneration be the truth of 
God, clearly we all ought to accept and teach it. If, 
as I believe with all my heart, there is no such thing 
taught in the Scriptures, then my friend in the 
surplice is very wrong to palm off such a notion 
upon the world. There is no room for variety, if we 
all keep to the truth on the question. Now, this 
reasoning applies to every doctrine of the Bible. If 
God had meant that there should be different 
churches, with different creeds, he would have made 
different revelations to suit. As he has revealed but 
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one system of 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 295 

doctrines throughout, it is clear that he meant there 
should be unity in all these matters. 

"People cannot all believe alike, and therefore we 
must not expect them to do so." Is there any natural 
difficulty in the way of any one's believing what God 
has revealed for our acceptance ? Let those who are 
willing to risk it tell the Judge in the last day that 
they could not believe what he taught them. There 
is no valid excuse for not accepting the truth, and 
God will have none. We may be sure of that. 

"It is wise to have different denominations, so that 
all may be suited." This plea proceeds upon the 
notion that people are to be pleased in religion. The 
idea is radically wrong. It reverses things. It is our 
duty to please God by an humble and willing obedi- 
ence to the truth. The Almighty has not undertaken 
to suit the world. Besides, if this plea be well 
founded, we have need of still other denominations, 
for there are many people yet unsuited. Such excuses 
will not heal the hurt inflicted upon the cause of 
Christ. 

"All the denominations are branches of the church, 
and right, each in its own way." Is this true ? is the 
first important inquiry. We have all heard much of 
the branches of the church. Where is the proof 
that the church has branches differing one from the 
other? Looking into the Xew Testament, we find 
many churches, but they were of the same faith and 
order. In vain do we search the sacred records for 



296 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

a trace of these divergent and antagonistic branches. 
Has the church really branched % Whence come the 
denominations of the present time % History informs 
us. If I say that they are branches of the Eomish 
apostacy, I speak only an historical truth. Let no 
one say that I am uncharitable. I must speak the 
truth. That may humble, but should not offend. Is 
it not known to every one that John Calvin led out 
the Presbyterian branch, Martin Luther the Lutheran 
branch, and Henry VIII. the Anglican branch? 
Methodism is a branch of the last named. 

Is Eome the true church of Christ % No Baptists 
and but few Protestants think so. Eather, she is 
the scarlet-robed persecutor of Christ's Church. If 
Eome be not the real church, then are not these 
denominations branches of the true church ; for they 
are the offshoots of that body, and, as the celebrated 
Methodist minister, Dr. Bond, aptly said, " The hues 
of Eomanism are inlaid throughout all Protestantism.* 7 
So much in vindication of the truth, as touching the 
branch theory which satisfies and misleads the con- 
sciences of many. 

Upon the last part of this plea, I wish to say that 
no one exactly believes it. It sounds broad and 
charitable to hear men say, " all are right, each in his 
own way." But people frequently say more than 
they mean. In this case, they say more than they 
can mean. The mind of a sane man is not constructed 
to believe that " yes " and " no,'* with reference to 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EVIL. 297 

the same thing, can both be true. We cannot believe 
both sides of a contradiction. When my brother, 
down the street, preaches up infant baptism and I 
preach it down, every one knows that somebody is 
wrong. It is idle to say that each one is right in his 
own way. There is but one right ?r«?/,and that is the 
Scriptural way. If he affirms that the Scriptures 
teach such a doctrine, and I deny it, one of us has 
the misfortune to be wrong. When our Oalvinistic 
brethren preach up the doctrines of grace, and our 
Arminian brethren preach them down, somebody is 
point-blank wrong. And just so it is with every 
point of disagreement. With all the charity which 
characterizes our brethren of other persuasions, I 
have always noticed that they do not think as much 
of our doctrines as they do of their own. This is 
very natural, I will admit; but, at least, if we are 
all right, each in his way, they should not inveigh 
against what we hold to be the truth. I have a 
decided impression that if any or all of them could 
succeed equal to their wishes, the Baptist branch 
would soon be no more ; we would be converted to 
other views. As for myself — and I am persuaded I 
speak the honest sentiments of my brethren — I 
would be glad to see the whole world converted to 
Baptist views. I cannot say that a man is right, and 
straightway seek to change him. The all-right theory 
is clearly all- wrong. 

I must come now to the last division of the subject, 
and speedily to a close. 



298 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

III. The impossibility of a settled peace under exist- 
ing circumstances. We hear the cry, " Peace, peace V 7 
"when there is no peace," and there can be none till 
truth is triumphant. Error is a disturbing element, 
and those who have foisted innovations upon the 
Christian system are responsible for disturbing the 
peace of Israel. Those who maintain these errors 
are also responsible. The responsibility lies alto- 
gether with those who have forsaken the old paths. 
To earnestly defend the faith once delivered to the 
saints, is a high Christian duty. As matters now 
stand, there can be no peace; we will not hold our 
peace ; we dare not do it. Sprung directly from Christ 
and his holy Apostles, and descended through a long 
line of martyrs, Baptists have a duty to perform, in 
vindicating the old faith, which they must not shirk. 
Our obligations to Christ and a proper regard for the 
highest interest of the race alike urge us to stand 
fast by the old landmarks of gospel faith. We have 
no terms of compromise to offer, and there are none 
we can accept. Our orders have been received from 
the Captain of our salvation ; it only remains for us 
to obey them, and insist, to the last, that others do 
the same. Just as long as men preach baptismal 
regeneration, we will preach against it. If men will 
insist on an unregenerate church-membership, we 
are bound to oppose them. We will not even agree 
to the substitution of sprinkling or pouring for 
gospel baptism. Nor will we take infants instead of 



MULTIPLIED DENOMINATIONS AN EYIL. 299 

believers as proper subjects for baptism. And just 
as sternly will we oppose the inversion of the ordi- 
nances, putting communion before baptism, though 
this would please many people whom, in other mat- 
ters, we would gladly accommodate. I trust that we 
know well the difference between servants and 
Master, and that, being servants, we will make it our 
chief concern to obey. We will have no personal 
feelings in our advocacy of the truth, but in love we 
will speak the truth fully, plainly, constantly, till, 
under God, it prevails over the world. 

It is related that there was great commotion and 
anxiety in the Eomish Council which passed the Infal- 
libility dogma. Many of the more prudent bishops 
feared the rupture of the church by such a bold 
measure. After the famous dogma was passed, sur- 
rounded by an excited crowd of prelates, Archbishop 
(now Cardinal) Manning, of England, holding the paper 
aloft in his hand, said, "Let all the world go to bits, and 
we will reconstruct it on this paper." The religious 
world is going to bits. Gradually, but surely, Protest- 
antism is growing out of its Romish wrappings. 
Infant baptism is not now believed in as it once was. 
Eight views of both the design and act of baptism 
prevail more and more. Even Rome cannot now hold 
the masses in her grasp as she has done in the past. 
The age is one of unrest. The means of communicat- 
ing knowledge are constantly multiplying. Men are 
everywhere coming into a larger inheritance of per- 



300 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sonal liberty and responsibility. Truly, the old world 
of thought and faith is going to bits, and, under God, 
Baptists are called upon to reconstruct it, not around 
an infallible (?) man, but upon the infallible Word of 
God, which endureth forever. The very times 
admonish us to stand fast in the old ways, and to 
give to the simple truth of Jesus, which makes men 
free indeed, a consistent, earnest, and life-long advo- 
cacy. And may the God of all grace, the God of 
peace, give us evermore the help of his Spirit, and, 
through the truth, hasten the day when all lovers of 
Jesus shall see eye to eye and speak the same 
things. Amen. 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 



BY REV. J. B. HARTWELL, D. D., SAN FRANCISCO, 
CALIFORNIA. 1 



"For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he 
might destroy the works of the devil.' ' — I. John iii. 8. 

From the time that the angels who fell left their 
first estate, from the time that the first faint thought 
of self-exaltation cast its blighting shadows across 
the unsullied heart of the Son of the Morning, there 
has been going on in the universe a struggle 
between good and evil, between truth and falsehood, 
between holiness and sin, between God and Satan. 

That there is a personal devil, and that he has set 
himself to mar, and has miserably marred, the fairest 
works of God ; that, in his hellish antagonism against 
all holiness, and everything that exalts and honors 
God, he has, by wily and malignant deception, suc- 
ceeded in alienating our race from holiness and from 
God, are truths so plainly taught in the Bible and 
manifested in the world around us, that only the 
willfully blind can fail to perceive them. 

1 Twenty-one years Missionary to China, of the Foreign Mis- 
sionary Board of the Southern Baptist Convention; now Mis- 
sionary of the Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist 
Convention to the Chinese in California. 

301 



302 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Deceiving our first mother, and through her over- 
coming our federal head, Satan corrupted the very 
fountain of human life, and from that time he has 
found the human heart, in every country and every 
age, an easy prey to his artifices. Artfully conceal- 
ing his purpose and his agency from his victims, 
with an angelic wisdom and foresight, he has led 
man on from sin to sin, from one degree of depravity 
to another, till the race now wraps itself in iniquity 
as a garment ; aye, luxuriates like a can ion worm, 
in its native corruption and filth. Availing himself 
of his superior wisdom and ability, and of man's 
weakness; perverting even the noblest and most 
heavenly sentiments of the human heart, he has, to 
the utmost of his power, subordinated to his own 
antagonism against God and truth, every thing, good 
and bad, in man, who has allowed himself to be led 
willingly captive. Like a roaring lion, he has gone 
forth to destroy. Like a cheat, he has deceived the 
nations. He has attacked the mind, the heart, the 
body. He has corrupted the languages, the tastes, 
the customs, the faith of all the nations. Pervert- 
ing man's tendency to religion, which is innate, he 
has led him into idolatry. Jeroboam, the son of 
Nebat, when he had led the ten tribes to revolt 
against the house of David, the rightful sovereigns of 
Israel, lest their love of religion, taking them to 
Jerusalem and to the sanctuary of Jehovah, that 
glorious temple that Solomon had built, should 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 303 

restore the people to their rightful Lord, set up 
golden calves in Bethel and in Dan, and proclaimed 
these the gods of Israel ; and by satisfying thus, 
with a pretense and a lie, the religious tendency of 
the people, he kept them away from the true God, 
and from their lawful sovereign. And no name has 
come down to posterity stained with a blacker 
infamy than attaches to Jeroboam, the son of Xebat, 
who caused Israel to sin. 

Just this, on a far grander scale, Satan has done. 
Having led the world into sin and alienated man 
from God, lest his inborn tendency to worship 
should lead him back to God, he has perverted 
this heavenly gift, and made it the grand means 
of separation between God and the human soul, 
by instituting idolatry. Walk with me in 
China, and I will show you gods by the way- 
side, gods at the bridges, gods of the fields and gods 
of the cities, gods of the courts, and gods of the 
kitchen, gods of the sea, and gods of the streams, 
gods of wealth, and gods of disease. Listen to the 
languages of the nations, and you find superstition and 
devil-worship ingrained into them, and unconsciously 
breathed by the youngest child who has learned to 
speak. The forms of conception, the habits of life, 
the foundations of society, are built upon super- 
stition and religious error. Go with me to ancient 
Greece and Eome, to Africa, and the islands of the 
sea, and I will show you as religious worship, orgies 



304 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

involving the violation of every moral sense, every 
sense of decency and virtue. Custom, custom makes 
right; and Satan's shrewdness is nowhere more 
exercised than in the institution among all people of 
customs, involving immorality and degrading crime. 
Who but Satan could have instituted the custom of 
Ancestral worship, appealing to some of the tender- 
est and noblest sentiments of the human heart, by 
which the Chinese have been enslaved for thousands 
of years? Who but Satan could have instituted 
foot-binding, which in China, for scores of centuries, 
has crippled, and almost annihilated for all good, 
nearly one-sixth of the human race ! Satan under- 
stood too well the power and influence of woman as 
a strategic force, to allow her to escape his observa- 
tion and special care. Hence the customs involv- 
ing female degradation that prevail everywhere, 
except where the pure gospel of Jesus Christ has 
shed its light and influence. The natural delicate 
tenderness, the strong tendency to purity and good- 
ness, the tenacity to truth and virtue, that charac- 
terize uncorrupted women ; the tender mother-love, 
the almost unbounded mother-influence, are all 
checked or perverted by the arch-fiend, by female 
degradation and ignorance. The moral sense of 
the ancient Greeks and Romans must have revolted 
at the horrid lewd rites involved in their religious 
worship. Yet Satan had made custom sanction 
them, and thereby the horror was modified, and the 
devil continued to be worshipped. 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 305 

But when, revolting at the absurdities of heathen- 
ism, the human mind demanded something better, 
Satan was equal to the occasion, and Mohammedanism 
arose, which, for eleven hundred years, has blighted 
with its curse many of the fairest lands of Asia, 
Africa and Europe. 

And Satan ventures on holier ground. He enters 
the arena of truth, and, by its perversion, establishes 
man in his opposition to God. Judaism, at first the 
earthly embodiment of the truth of God, has been 
perverted to opposition to God's own truth; and 
now, the descendants of "the friend of God," to 
whom pertained the promises and the sanctuary, and 
by whom, as pertained to the flesh, the Christ came, 
are the inveterate and irreconcilable enemies of the 
truth, to which their own existence as a scattered, 
peeled, despised, yet separate and distinct people, 
bears the strongest testimony. Christ came to his 
own, and his own received him not, but cried, "Away 
with him, his blood be upon us and upon our chil- 
dren." And till to-day they know not his saving 
grace ; but, calling themselves the people of God, 
and believing that they are serving God, they are 
marshalled in Satan's army, and direct all their 
mighty energies against God's plan for destroying 
the works of the devil. 

Would God Satan had stopped here! God-defiant, 
he has entered the very holy of holies, and, in the 
Church of Jesus Christ, has raised up Antichrist, 

20 



306 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

which, veiled in the garb of the very Bride of Christ, 
but in heart charged with the venoms of the pit, has 
gone forth his chosen emissary to deceive the 
nations. O Eome, Eome, Rome! what hast thou 
done? From every land where thou hast held thy 
sway comes the wail of superstition, ignorance and 
blood — energy stifled, mind enslaved, heart poisoned, 
truth crushed, vice rampant, God defied, Satan 
enthroned. 

But the mind of man will not, cannot remain always 
bound by the absurd superstitions and slavish sub- 
serviency of Eome; and, breaking loose from its 
shackles, it rushes, led still by the arch-deceiver, 
into the mazes of infidelity. Like the pendulum, from 
the one extreme of credulity, giving up soul and body 
to the dictum of the priest, the mind swings to the 
other extreme of infidelity. And here the enemy 
avails himself of every agency. Education, incipient 
science, the art of printing, the telegraph, literature, 
are all perverted to his service and to opposition to 
truth, to holiness and to God. 

On the other hand, however, the Bible teaches, 
with equal plainness, that Jesus Christ was sent into 
the world to overcome all this evil. For this purpose 
was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy 
the works of the devil. 

In this struggle between good and evil, between 
God and Satan, the Bible represents all created 
intelligences as interested; and especially in the 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 307 

work of reconciliation that Christ is effecting, are 
their intensest feelings and sympathies elicited. 
Paul speaks of himself and his fellow-apostles as 
appointed unto death, and as a theatre, a spectacle 
to the world, to angels and to men; representing the 
world, the angels and men as gazing with intensest 
concern, as if upon one of the gladiatorial shows, in 
which persons appointed to death were set to struggle 
in mortal combat with wild beasts. 

The angels are interested. They desire to look 
into this mystery. From the time of their creation 
they had been wont to bow in adoration before the 
Son of God. Now they behold a mystery involving 
his humiliation, his ignominy, his suffering, his death. 
It staggers them, and they desire to look into the 
mystery. They are all ministering spirits sent forth 
to minister to them who shall be the heirs of salva- 
tion. And they seem anxious to take part in the 
conflict. Eight gladly they visited the saints under 
the Old Testament dispensation and under the New. 
Eight gladly they ministered to the Saviour in the 
hour of his extremity in Gethsemane. 

So, too, the saints are concerned. When it was 
permitted to Moses and Elijah to visit the Saviour at 
the time of his transfiguration on the mount, the only 
theme that could claim their conversation in that 
precious hour was the sacrifice that he should accom- 
plish at Jerusalem. 

And God also himself is intent upon the struggle, 



308 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

and upon the manifestation of his glory which is to 
result therefrom. Paul says, " Unto me, who am less 
than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I 
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable 
riches of Christ, and to make all men know what is 
the fellowship of the mystery which, from the begin- 
ning of the world, hath been hid in God, who created 
all things by Jesus Christ to the intent that now, unto 
the principalities and powers in heavenly places 
might be known by the church the manifold wisdom 
of God, according to his eternal purpose which he 
purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord"— ( Eph. iii. 8-11) — 
i. e., unto Paul was granted the privilege of preach- 
ing among the heathen, and of letting all men know 
the fellowship of the mystery which had been hid 
in God from the beginning, but was now revealed 
through his holy Apostles ; viz., the mystery of God's 
purpose in creation ; that he had created all things 
by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the prin- 
cipalities and powers in heavenly places might be 
known by the church the manifold wisdom of God; 
that he had made the world expressly that, through 
his redeemed here, he might manifest to all the intel- 
ligences of the universe such glories in his character 
and workings, as, in all eternity, there had been no 
opportunity of exhibiting before. 

With God this has become, if I may so speak, the 
grand theme, the supreme thought. The great themes 
of the Bible, its stupendous truths, are Man's Apos- 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 309 



tacy and God's Redemption. The old Testament 
history was evidently written with an eye expressly 
to these doctrines. They constitute the burden of 
the prophets, they give all their music, all their sweet- 
ness to the Psalms, and the Xew Testament is but a 
final and authoritative reiteration of the same doc- 
trines. 

The central figure of Christianity is Christ. Around 
him cluster all its glories, in him centre all its joys, 
all its affections, all its hopes. He is the great sun 
of the Christian system, around which revolve its 
doctrines, its principles, its ordinances, its theories, 
its promises, its threats. He is the great source 
whence emanate all the Christian inspiration, all its 
light, its warmth, its vivifying power. 

And Christianity is the central system of God's 
universe. As the suns of God's numerous systems 
are supposed to revolve about a common centre, 
towards which they gravitate, so about Christ and 
Christianity revolve, and towards Christ and Chris- 
tianity gravitate God's purposes, his providences, his 
works, his glories and his affections. Here is his 
peculiar joy, here his highest glory. Man has sinned, 
but Christ has redeemed him. Satan has corrupted 
man, but Christ purifies him, and makes him meet for 
companionship with angels and with God. Man has 
degraded himself to hell, but Christ exalts him to 
heaven. 

The essence of Christianity in the individual soul 



310 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

is likeness to Christ, union with Christ. The key-note 
of the Christian life and character is fellowship and 
sympathy with Christ. The Christian's fellowship with 
Christ in this life and the life to come was the object of 
the death of Christ. " Our Lord Jesus Christ died for 
us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live 
together with him." I. Thess. v. 10. Our Lord Jesus 
does long for the companionship and fellowship of 
his people. He did when he was on the earth. From 
among the multitude of his disciples he chose a dozen 
men that they might be with him. One object of our 
Saviour in selecting the Twelve doubtless was that, 
by their being constantly associated with him, wit- 
nessing his miracles, listening to his instructions, and 
imbibing his spirit, they might be the better prepared, 
after his removal from the earth, to build up and 
establish his kingdom in the world. But one object, 
also, was that they might be with him. And accord- 
ingly we find that, during his public ministry, only 
on those occasions when, though he was God, he felt 
it necessary to withdraw from all human companion- 
ship, and spend a season in communion with his 
Father in heaven, did he separate himself from his 
chosen disciples. When he was about to go away 
from the earth, his heart seems to have yearned over 
those disciples. "I go," he says, "but I will not 
leave you comfortless. I go to prepare a place for 
you, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will 
come again and take you to myself, that where I am 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 311 

there ye may be also." Again, lie says to them, 
" Because I live ye shall live also," as though there 
was a necessity in the fact of the Saviour's living 
that his discliples should live also; as though life 
would not be life for Christ unless his disciples, too, 
should live. And, then, in that last prayer to his 
Father, recorded in the seventeenth chapter of John, 
he says, "Father, I will that they whom thou hast 
given me be with me where lam;" as though heaven 
would not be heaven to Christ unless his disciples 
were there to share its glories with him. Strange ! 
Incomprehensible ! It almost seems as if the Lord 
Jesus were stooping to that which is unworthy of 
him as God, that he should long for the companion- 
ship and fellowship of such poor, miserable creatures 
as ourselves. And yet we are taught as plainly as 
language can express it, that the Lord Jesus longed 
for this, and so longed for it as to be willing to die to 
attain it. 

The fellowship with Christ here spoken of, is to be 
begun in this life. The Christian is not to wait till he 
passes beyond the river to the other shore, to live 
with Jesus. It is " whether we wake or sleep," i. e., 
whether we live or die, whether here or in the spirit 
land, that we are to live with Christ. 

There is such a thing as the Christian's living along 
with Jesus here in this life. Our Saviour, before he 
left the world, promised his disciples that he and his 
Father would come and take up their abode in the 



312 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

hearts of his people. Aye, there is more, even a 
conscious presence of the Lord Jesus. He promised 
that he would manifest himself to his own as he 
would not manifest himself to the world. He lets 
the Christian know of his presence and his love. I 
remember to have read somewhere of a man who 
was to spend the night in the same room with Bengel, 
the author of the Gnomon. Bengel was a holy man, 
and the Christian felt it would be a privilege to wit- 
ness his devotions. He watched him, saying to 
himself : " Now, I shall see Bengel pray." But when 
the hour grew late, the old man, weary, closed his 
books and laid aside his papers, and, lifting his eyes 
to heaven, said; "O blessed Saviour, the same old 
relation between thee and me continues," and quietly 
laid himself down to sleep. It was not necessary 
for the old man, worn as he was with his day's labors, 
to go through with even the form of prayer. There 
was a fixed, established relation between him and his 
Saviour, Bengel loved Jesus, and Jesus knew it ; 
Jesus loved Bengel, and Bengel knew it; and it was 
only necessary for him to say to his Eedeemer: 
"Blessed Saviour, the same old relation between 
thee and me continues," and in perfect confidence 
he could lay himself down to rest. The afflicted 
Christian sometimes attains this same spirit of confi- 
dence, union and harmony with the Divine will. Oft 
repeated and long continued suffering has brought 
him into a state of acquiescence in the Divine will 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 313 

and purposes, and he feels, "Whatever God wills, I 
will; whether for joy or for sorrow, for comfort or 
for pain, for life or for death." And it is the Chris- 
tian's privilege always to live in this state of har- 
mony with God and companionship with God. And 
if his privilege, then his duty. 

But how can two walk together except they be 
agreed ? Two men, all whose tastes, affections, pur- 
poses, aims, hopes are diverse, cannot walk together 
in love. Every subject that arises for discussion 
involves a dispute. There is a jar, a discord. They 
do not think alike, feel alike, act alike ; and before 
they can walk and live together in peace, they must 
come to have some common character, some common 
principles, some common interests, aims, purposes, 
affections. Now, if our Lord Jesus Christ died for 
us that we should live with him, it follows, necessa- 
rily, that he died for us that we might be united with 
him in sympathy, in character, and in desire. 

If space permitted, it would be pleasant and profit- 
able here to study the character of Jesus Christ, and 
to dwell upon some of those features in his charac- 
ter in regard to which we must be like him if we would 
live with him. Mark his humility. Though God, and 
knowing himself to be God, he yet moved an humble 
man among humble men. When reviled, he reviled 
not again; when rebuked, he threatened not, but 
meekly, gently, lovingly bore all. Go to Jesus Christ 
and learn how to live humbly before God, humbly 



314 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

among men. Note, too, his diligence. Whatever his 
surroundings, in the crowded city, or in the solitude 
of the desert, always ready to work. Having left 
the multitude on one occasion, expressly to seek a 
little rest for himself and his disciples, the multitude 
hearing of his whereabouts and following him, he was 
not too weary to come forth and preach to them. 
And when, journeying through Samaria, he sat 
wearied at noon upon the curbing of the well near 
the city of Sychar, while his disciples went into the 
city to buy food, there came a woman of Samaria to 
draw water, Jesus was not too weary to talk to her 
of the water of life, nor to preach two whole days 
to the Samaritans concerning the kingdom of God. 
Go, reader, to Jesus Christ and learn how to labor. 
Contemplate his tenderness and sympathy, — always 
touched with the woes of the distressed. Go to 
Jesus Christ and learn how to succor the needy and 
the suffering. And there is a fellowship of suffering, 
too, which it is the church's privilege to share. 
Note, also, the spirit of confidence in his Father 
which characterized the Christ, saying in his last 
moments on the cross, u Father, into thy hands I 
commit my spirit. 77 Go to Jesus Christ and learn 
how to die. But space does not allow a considera- 
tion of these points. Let it be clearly fixed in the 
mind, however, as a point in our argument, that the 
Lord Jesus Christ died for us, to the end that we 
should be united with him in character, in sympathy, 
and in desire. 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 315 

The fellowship with Christ which is thus begun 
here is to continue in the life to come. Whether we 
wake or sleep, we are to live with him. 

To the Christian there are not two lives. There is 
only one life here and hereafter. There are those 
who teach that the soul sleeps with the body from 
death till the resurrection ; but the Bible knows 
nothing of any such doctrine. Had Paul believed 
that for him to die would be to lie down and sleep, 
would he ever have been in a strait betwixt two, not 
knowing what to desire — to depart and be with 
Christ, which, he said, would be far better, or to con- 
tinue in the flesh for the benefit of the church ? Ah, 
no ! That man loved Christ too much. He would 
rather have lived and labored, sacrificed and suffered 
if need be, for the advancement of the Bedeemer's 
kingdom on the earth, than to have laid down to 
sleep. Paul knew that for him to die was to go into 
the more immediate, visible presence of the Lord 
Jesus than was possible even for him while he lived 
in the flesh. He longed to go. For him, to live was 
Christ ; to die, gain. I was at the death-bed of a 
holy man once (a Presbyterian Missionary in China), 
and as he drew near to his earthly end he lifted up 
his eyes and said to us : " I see things that you 
cannot see, I know things that you cannot know. 
Death ? Is this death ? There is no death. It is 
just one living right straight on— just the expanding 
of temporal life into eternal life." And there is the 



316 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

true idea of the Christian's death : " Just living right 
straight on." There is no stop at death, no cessation 
of existence, of consciousness, or of identity. It is 
a heathenish idea that at death we change into some- 
thing or somebody else. We carry with us our con- 
sciousness, our identity, our memory, our character, 
our fellowship, and our love, just so far as these are 
pure and holy and in accord with the Divine will. 
When I go across the ocean to China I do not cease 
to be myself. I am there, as it were, in a new world, 
surrounded by people whose appearance, dress, lan- 
guage, tastes, habits, characters, are all different 
from what I have been accustomed to in America. 
But I am myself. My character, my aims, my 
hopes, my purposes, my fellowships, my loves, are 
unchanged. I do not change because I have crossed 
the water. And just so when I cross the little river 
of death. I shall be myself. I shall carry my char- 
acter with me into the other world. If a tree fall 
toward the north or toward the south, in the place 
where a tree falleth, there it shall be. He that is 
holy shall be holy still, and he that is filthy shall be 
filthy still. The man who loves the world, who loves 
self, who loves sin here, will love self and sin over 
there, and the man who loves purity, and holiness, 
a,nd God and Heaven here, will love purity, holiness, 
God and Heaven over there. Death will work no 
such change in any one, as that from being a lover of 
sin, of Satan and of the world, he will turn and begin 
to love holiness and God. 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 317 

I shall carry, also, with me my fellowhips and loves, 
so far as these are pure and holy. I know and love 
my friends in Jesus Christ here — I shall know and 
love them on the other shore. Why not ? I shall be 
myself, and they will be themselves. We shall know 
what we are, and what we were, and why we are 
what we are. Punish a child without letting him 
know the ground of the punishment, and it ceases 
to be punishment — it is cruelty. So, take away from 
the rewards of the other world a knowledge of the 
grounds thereof, and they cease to be rewards. We 
shall carry our memories unimpaired into the future 
life. When the rich man lifted up his eyes in torment 
and saw Lazarus afar off in Abraham's bosom, and 
begged that he might be sent to cool his tongue with 
a little water, Abraham, said to him : " Son, remem- 
ber." Shall the damned in hell remember and the 
saints in heaven forget ? Xever ! We shall remem- 
ber our struggles, our labors, our sacrifices, our 
temptations, our sins. We shall remember and love 
each other there. It will not be wrong to love some 
more than others. Christ did so when on earth. 
The Twelve were dearer to him than the multitude, 
the Three nearer than the rest of the Twelve, and 
one is specially designated as the disciple whom 
Jesus loved. Those of us who have lived long on 
earth have come to feel that we have as many and as 
tender ties in the other world as in this, and one of 
the sweetest anticipations of the future life is the 
hope of reunion with our loved and lost. 



318 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

And we shall carry with us our fellowship with 
Christ. For this he died, that whether we wake or 
sleep, live or die, we should live with him. In heaven 
every desire, every emotion that finds expression in 
the Saviour's breast, will find an echo in the breasts 
of his saints; every cord that vibrates in the 
Saviour's bosom will find a cord vibrating in unison 
in the bosoms of his own. Otherwise heaven will be 
no heaven. What of joy or comfort is there to the 
sin-loving man of the world in the company of the 
devout men of the earth while they talk of joy in the 
Holy Ghost? To hira there is no joy. He would 
prefer to be among those of his own character and 
passions. So a soul in heaven not in sympathy with 
Christ would find heaven a hell. His presence would 
mar the harmony of heaven, and ruin it, which God 
can never allow. Dr. McOosh somewhere uses an 
illustration like this : Here is a clock. It is a beau- 
tiful piece of machinery. Every wheel, and every 
cog in every wheel moves in perfect harmony with 
every other, and with the grand design of the maker. 
There is beauty, there is symmetry, there is accu- 
racy. But mark! Every time the hand reaches a 
certain point on the dial, there is a jar. The clock- 
maker searches to find the cause. One cog on one 
wheel is out of position, out of harmony with the 
purpose of the maker. He may ply his nippers and 
twist it, or he may ply his file and rasp it. He will 
bring it into position and harmony if it will be 
brought. Otherwise he will destroy it. He cannot 



MISSIONS, THE SPIRIT OF CHRISTIANITY. 319 

allow his whole machine to be ruined for the sake of 
one miserable cog. So with God. The universe is 
God's grand machine, which he has built for a grand 
and glorious purpose. We are cogs in that machine. 
If we are in harmony with the rest of the machine, 
and with the purposes of the great Maker, all is well ; 
if not, he will destroy us. God cannot help it. He 
cannot allow his universe to be ruined for the sake 
of a miserable sinner. God must destroy the sinner 
just because he is out of harmony and sympathy with 
himself. 

The heavenly bodies move, each in its appointed 
orbit. There is beauty, there is symmetry, there 
is accord, there is silence. The attractions and 
counter-attractions balance each other, and all move 
in harmony with each other and with the purpose of 
the Maker. But let one of those orbs leave its orbit, 
however little, and the longer it strays, the further it 
strays. The equipoise is destroyed. The orb must 
be brought back, or, darting hither and yon through 
the heavens without law, God must destroy it. So 
with us. While we are in sympathy and harmony 
and cooperation with the Divine will and purpose, 
all is well ; but, out of sympathy with God, all must 
perish. 

Now, if it be true that sympathy with Christ here 
is necessary to our sympathy and life with him here- 
after, it behooves us to ask : Is there any one thing 
upon which Christ has set his heart supremely ? If 



320 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

so, in that we must sympathize. We look into the 
Bible and there learn that the one grand, absorbing, 
and, if I may so speak, consuming thought with 
the Christ is the saving of the souls of men all over 
this world. It was this that brought him from 
heaven, that carried him through all the scenes of 
his humiliation and suffering on earth, that took him 
to the cross and the grave. For this he lived, for 
this he labored, for this he sacrificed, for this he 
died, for this he arose again, and for this he now 
lives and pleads — aye, reigns in heaven. 

All things were made by and for the Christ. For 
him the heavens were created, and all the angelic 
host; for him the orbs of light and beauty that roll in 
grandeur above us, the planets with all their inhabi- 
tants, if they have them. But upon none of these 
has the Son of God set his affections supremely. 
The angels sinned, but no provision was made for 
their redemption, and to-day they await in chains the 
day of the revelation of God's wrath. But on this 
little planet of ours God seems to have centred his 
love in a peculiar manner. Here is to be the scene 
of his triumph over evil. The redeemed of the earth 
are called the " glory of Christ." In them he finds 
his glory above every other glory. Through them 
God is to manifest such glories in his own character 
as in all eternity there has been no similar opportu- 
nity of exhibiting. For this purpose he made the 
worlds. He created all things by Jesus Christ, to 



321 

the end that now unto the principalities and powers 
in heavenly places might be known, by the church, the 
manifold wisdom of God. 

To the accomplishment of his purposes in Jesus 
Christ God has subordinated every other purpose, 
every power, and every agency in the universe. 
Because Jesus Christ has suffered, God also hath 
highly exalted him, and given him The Name that 
is above every other name, that at the name of 
Jehovah Jesus every knee should bow, of things in 
heaven (angels), of things on earth (men), and of 
things under the earth (devils and damned spirits). 
Everything in heaven, earth and hell shall conspire 
to accomplish the work of Christ, which is the saving 
of men, and thereby the destroying of the works of 
the devil. If there be power in God Almighty to 
make Jesus Christ triumph, he will triumph. 

And sympathy with Christ in this work of saving 
the souls of men everywhere is just the missionary 
spirit. It is inconceivable that a man should love 
Jesus and not love that which Jesus loves, not labor 
for that for which Jesus labors, sacrifice for that for 
which Jesus sacrificed, and die, if need be, for that 
for which Jesus died. Sympathy with Christ is the 
essence of Christianity, and is identical with the 
Spirit of Missions. 



21 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 



BY REV. A. H. BTTRXINGHAM, D. D., NEW YORK. 



We use the term Foreign Missions, as embracing 
modern efforts to evangelize heathen nations. And 
we view the relation of the Baptist denomination to 
this movement, in only a few particulars. 

In tracing the connection of Baptists with the 
origin of Foreign Missions, we must, of necessity, 
traverse familiar ground. The names of Carey, 
Fuller, Byland, Hall, Sutcliff, Morris and Pearce, 
are household words to those who have read the 
history of the rise of Missions in England. As 
early as 1784, at an associational meeting at Not- 
tingham, by the suggestion of these and other 
Baptist ministers, a resolution was passed, recom- 
mending a Monthly Concert of Prayer, for " the 
spread, of the gospel to the most distant parts of the 
habitable globe. 77 This was the origin of the Mission- 
ary Concert, and was an unpurposed prophecy of 
the formation of the Baptist Foreign Missionary 
Society. This resolution was carried out for several 
years of the incipient period of this missionary 
movement. But these good men did not apprehend 
the silent meaning and drift of their prayers. The 

322 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 323 

thought that they were making way towards forming 
a Missionary Society did not dawn upon them. It 
was three years after this, that John Eyland, Sen., 
rebuked William Carey, who, at a ministers' meeting 
at Northampton, timidly asked : " Have the churches 
of Christ done all they ought to have done for hea- 
then nations ?" The words of rebuke are standard, 
and show how little good men may comprehend the 
greatness and purpose of Christ's redemption: 
44 Young man, sit down; when God pleases to con- 
vert the heathen world, he will do it without your 
help or mine either." The effect of this severe 
attack was to quicken and strengthen Mr. Carey's 
convictions with regard to the duty of Christians 
towards the heathen. Four years after this, the 
ministers' meeting was held at Clipstone, and here 
Carey pressed the subject of establishing a mission. 
But all that was done was to request him to publish 
a pamphlet upon the subject. The next year, 1792, 
May 30th, the Association was again held at Notting- 
ham. Here Mr. Carey preached his memorable ser- 
mon from Isa. liv. 2, 3, making two points: "Expect 
great things from God; attempt great things for God." 
Dr. John Eyland, Jun., says of this sermon : " If all 
the people had lifted up their voice and wept, as the 
children of Israel did at Bochim, I should not have 
wondered at the effect; it would only have seemed 
proportionate to the cause, so clearly did he prove the 
criminality of our supineness in the cause of God." 



324 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

But still they hesitated to move forward. When 
about to part, and do nothing, Mr. Carey, unable 
to hold himself longer, said to Mr. Fuller, most be- 
seechingly, " And are you, after all, going again to 
do nothing ?" This brought a decision. A resolu- 
tion was passed, u That a plan be prepared, against 
the next ministers 7 meeting, at Kettering, for form- 
ing a Baptist Society for propagating the Gospel 
among the heathen." 

When the meeting occurred, Oct. 2d, 1792, the 
Baptist Missionary Society was formed, and a sub- 
scription made of £13. 2. 6. This Society was 
said by friends in other denominations to have been 
" as disinterested in design, and as strenuous in exe- 
cution, as any that the Christian world ever did or 
ever will employ, for the illumination and conversion 
of idolaters ; and surpassing, beyond comparison, all 
of former missions, and all other undertakings in 
the grand article of translating the Bible into the 
languages of the heathen." " Former missions," in 
this quotation, must refer to the efforts of the Ro- 
man Catholic Church,' of the Moravians, of Danish 
Christians, and of the Wesleyan Methodists, to 
plant missions. But up to the period of the forma- 
tion of the Baptist Missionary Society of England, 
no organization existed for the purpose of sending 
the Gospel to the heathen, unless we must recog- 
nize as such the old " Society for the propagation of 
the Gospel in Foreign Parts," an institution mostly 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 325 

sustained by governmental patronage, and confined 
in its operations to the British Colonies. This So- 
ciety had its origin in 1701, and received its charter 
from William III. Its object was u to provide for 
the ministrations of the Church of England in the 
British Colonies, and to propagate the Gospel 
among native inhabitants of those countries." This 
institution has done and is still doing great good, 
yet in its inception it was not so widely missionary 
in its spirit and purpose as are modern societies. 
It contemplated no broader range than British arms 
and rule marked out. But William Carey saw the 
whole race in ruin, and saw in the Gospel the only 
remedy. Into his sweeping vision came mankind, 
regardless of nationality, and much less of British 
confines. 

The Society whose founding he inspired, covered 
by its reach and purpose all benighted lands. Carey 
was raised up for this work. Dr. Kyland says of 
him : u As to the immediate origin of a Baptist 
Mission, I believe God himself infused into the 
mind of Carey that solicitude for the salvation of 
the heathen, which cannot be fairly traced to any 
other source." 

Carey was moved toward the heathen by studying 
" Cook's Voyages Bound the World." It is well 
known that while at work on his shoe-bench, having 
rudely-constructed maps conveniently arranged, he 
studied the geography of these heathen countries, 



326 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

and was educating himself in this respect, as well 
as by his pursuit of linguistic studies, for the sphere 
which God was calling him to fill. He was the first 
missionary of the Society whose formation, under 
Divine guidance, he forced upon the Baptist denom- 
ination in England. His own brethren were timid. 
He was ridiculed by others as a fanatic, and was 
satirized as the " consecrated cobbler " by Sydney 
Smith in the Edinburgh Revieic. He was opposed 
by his wife in his missionary longings, and encoun- 
tered barriers to his embarkation from the East 
India Company; but, nerved by irrepressible con- 
viction, and encouraged by Divine sanction — as he 
thought — he pushed his way on, and reached the 
place where God sent him ; not Otaheite, where he 
intended to go, but India. He was willing to be thus 
turned in his plans. A committee of the Society 
had determined his destination. This committee 
meeting was held in Andrew Fuller's study, at 
Kettering. It was at this meeting that Mr. Fuller 
said : " There is a gold mine in India, but it seems 
almost as deep as the centre of the earth ; who will 
venture to explore it?" Mr. Carey listened, and 
said: "I will go down, but remember, you must 
hold the rope." Those present solemnly engaged 
to do so, nor while they lived would they desert 
him. 

Carey embarked for India, June 13th, 1793, and for 
forty years worked for the salvation of the heathen, 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 327 

becoming — from a rustic youth plying the humble 
trade of shoemaker and advancing at length into a 
village schoolmaster and pastor, but poorly paid and 
limitedly known in all of these vocations — as noted a 
man, in learning, in philology, in science, in philoso- 
phy, as India could boast ; and as to benevolence, as 
some one has said, " deserving a place by the side of 
Clarkson and Wilberforce." 

The founding of the Baptist Mission at Serampore 
by Carey, and prosecuted by him and his coadjutors, 
Messrs. Marshinan and Ward, for so long a time, 
have vital relation to the enlistment of the Baptists 
of the United States in the work of Foreign Mis- 
sions. The wants, the success, the appeals, the 
heart-throbs of this mission were felt by us as well 
as by our brethren in England. As early as 1811 and 
1812, a year or two before any one in this country 
dared to think aloud that the American Baptists 
would ever organize a Foreign Mission Society, 
the churches of our denomination in Boston and 
Salem alone, sent $1,600 to aid the Serampore Mis- 
sion. Even as early as 1802, a Baptist Missionary 
Society was formed in Massachusetts, whose object 
was "to furnish occasional preaching, and to pro- 
mote the knowledge of evangelical truth in the 
Xew Settlements within the United States, or fur- 
ther if circumstances rendered it proper." The letters 
of Carey, Marshman and Ward, I have no doubt, had 
much to do with the insertion of this italicized sen- 
tence. 



328 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Undefined and hidden principles seemed intimating 
themselves, which blindly promised embodiment 
sometime in a Baptist organization avowedly for the 
purpose of giving the Gospel to the heathen. But 
where was the leader % We had no Baptist Carey ; 
nor had we an Andrew Fuller in our ranks, though 
one of our subsequent leaders much resembled him 
— the Rev. Thomas Baldwin. Among the fathers we 
look in vain for a master, aggressive mind, to descry 
these intimations of Foreign Mission interest in our 
denomination, and to lay hold of our Baptist forces 
and marshal them for the Master's work in regions 
benighted. Foreign Missions must be precipitated 
upon us by a strange and circuitous Providence. The 
story of the " Consecrated hay-stack " of Williams- 
town ; of the Andover Students ; of the Organization 
of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign 
Missions, in 1810, and the turning of three of 
the first Missionaries whom this honored society 
sent to India from Congregationalists to Baptists, is 
too well known to be dwelt upon in detail. By their 
convictions, Mr. and Mrs. Judson and Mr. Bice were 
obliged to throw themselves upon American Baptists 
for support in their work as Missionaries. As soon 
as this strange and startling news reached this 
country, there was a a quick response to the rallying 
cry of Providence. Our people seem to have been 
made ready to heed the call. They came together 
from near and far as if challenged by a bugle blast. 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 329 

And it was no uncertain sound that called the 
tribes of our Israel together. The voice was too 
manifestly of God to allow doubt or debate. All 
minds were one. Letters from Messrs. Judson and 
Bice came from India at once upon their change of 
ecclesiastical relations consequent upon their con- 
viction that immersion of believers is the only Scrip- 
tural baptism, and reached the Bev. Dr. Baldwin, 
Pastor of the Second Baptist Church of Boston, in 
February, 1813. It is well known that, immediately 
upon receipt of these letters, a meeting of the lead- 
ing Baptist ministers of Massachusetts was sum- 
moned, and they organized the " Baptist Society for 
propagating the Gospel in India and other foreign 
parts." That Mr. Bice, under the exciting emergency 
that had arisen, came at once to America to rouse 
our churches to the perils of the perishing millions 
and to gather them in convention to devise measures 
for bringing the aggregate forces of our denomina- 
tion to bear upon the work of heathen evangelization, 
is also a fact patent to all who have ever read the 
thrilling story of our early enlistment in this cause. 
Bice's gifts were rare. His soul was ablaze. He 
went through our land, north and south, and the 
people in masses listened to his eloquent portrayals 
of heathen wants and woes, to his moving appeals 
for action and help, and to his glowing and compre- 
hensive exposition of the Great Commission, as to a 
rapt prophet, and his arguments and burning exhor- 



330 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

tations were heard with as breathless attention as 
was the voice of that rugged forerunner in leathern 
girdle, who broke upon our world crying in the wil- 
derness of Judea. 

Delegates assembled from eleven different States, 
and from the District of Columbia, in convention^ 
thirty-three in number, in the First Baptist church, 
Philadelphia, on Wednesday, May 18, 1814. The 
mighty men of our denomination, the leaders of our 
tribes, from Massachusetts to Georgia, were there, 
and in their councils there was not a jarring note. 
As the Holy Spirit had called them together, he 
brooded over them and kept them in hushed oneness* 
The Eev. Dr. Furman, of Charleston, S. C, was made 
President, and the Eev. Dr. Baldwin, of Boston, Sec- 
retary. After days spent in repeated seasons of 
prayer, in listening to sermons and addresses, in 
deliberations and fraternal conferences, a Constitu- 
tion for a National Baptist Missionary Society was 
brought forth by a committee appointed for that pur- 
pose, and was unanimously adopted by a rising vote. 
This was a glorious day for the Baptists of this 
country, and hopeful in its prophecy and promise for 
the world. The preamble to this Constitution is well 
worth recording : 

" We, the Delegates from Missionary Societies and 
other religious bodies of the Baptist Denomination 
in various parts of the United States, met in conven- 
tion in the city of Philadelphia, for the purpose of 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 331 

carrying into effect the benevolent intentions of our 
constituents, by organizing a plan for exciting, com- 
bining and directing the energies of the whole De- 
nomination, in sacred effort for sending the good 
tidings of salvation to the heathen, and to nations 
destitute of pure Gospel Light, do agree to the fol- 
lowing rules or fundamental principles." 

The original designation of this Society was " The 
General Missionary Convention of the Baptist De- 
nomination in the United States of America, for 
Foreign Missions." 

It was provided in the constitution that the body 
should meet once in three years, hence the popular 
name, " Triennial Convention." For more than thirty 
years this preamble remained unchanged, and the 
constitution continued substantially the same, though 
slight alterations were introduced from time to time. 
This old u Triennial Convention," till 1846, commanded 
the support and combined the moral and religious 
elements of our whole denomination, north and 
south. 

The Eev. Luther Bice was appointed the first Mis- 
sionary of the Board, and the Eev. Adoniram Judson 
the second. But though Mr. Eice was appointed a 
Missionary, the Board gave him special instructions 
"to continue his itinerant services in these United 
States for a reasonable time, with a view to excite 
the public mind more generally to engage in Mis- 
sionary exertions, and to assist in originating socie- 



332 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ties and institutions for carrying the Missionary 
design into execution." He expected to go back to 
India after "a reasonable time." Such was Mr. 
Judson's hope, and concerning which he and Mr. Eice 
were in anxious correspondence. But the work of 
quickening the energies of the churches, and of 
gathering funds, so grew in importance, that Mr. 
Eice remained the agent of the Board till 1826, and 
then left the position to enter upon the work of col- 
lecting funds for Columbian College at Washington. 
In all he spent twenty-three years in agency work, 
falling asleep near Edgefield, S. C, in 1836. Long 
before this, most of the fathers of this sublime en- 
terprise had passed away. They had wrought and 
others had entered into their labors. The great 
movement inaugurated by them has proved to be the 
grandest of all the achievements of our Denomina- 
tion, and the names of its founders are immortal. 

Having looked at the relation of Baptists to the 
origin of Foreign Missions, we now give a passing 
thought to the attitude of the denomination towards 
this inaugurated work of foreign evangelization in 
its progress, or while it is in its tentative state. 

Mr. and Mrs. Judson soon found themselves, after 
being driven from Bengal by the East India Com- 
pany, at work in Burmah. They toiled on for six 
years before the first convert rewarded their faith 
and patience. From time to time this mission was 
reinforced, and others were established. These 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 333 

evangelizing agencies were slow in development, 
but they made sure progress, as was prophesied by 
the spirit and consecration which attended their in- 
ception. It is a stupendous work to plant and grow 
a mission in the midst of unbroken heathenism. 
Language must be mastered ; habits must be studied ; 
confidence must be won ; instruction must be com- 
municated by speech and press ; God's word must 
be translated ; the Gospel must be preached ; hard 
ground must be broken up, the seed of truth sown, 
and the harvest waited for with patience, faith and 
hope. During all the time this initial work was 
going on under our Foreign Mission Board by 
those sent abroad, our people at home were praying 
and waiting, but not weary and heart-sick from 
hopes deferred any more than the toilers on the 
field. From the natal day of our missions to this, 
our churches have been growing in missionary elist- 
ment and consecration. They .have never ques- 
tioned that the Divine pillar of cloud and fire was 
leading them on to larger and better missionary 
possessions. Sustained by faith and a steadiness of 
purpose which faith inspires, not doubting the ulti- 
mate and large success of their undertaking, they 
have increased in their charities and gifts, in the 
ratio of growing numbers, as the steady movements 
or exigencies of our missions have demanded. As 
Baptists were the pioneers in England of organized 
and general missionary work at the dawn of the 



334 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

new missionary era and by the signal interposition 
of God, were obliged to be nearly abreast with the 
first movement in this country to carry the Gospel 
to the heathen nations, so we have kept on in our 
missionary interest, not as a whole denomination 
to be sure, but in the fair support of our Society, in 
all the years needed for sowing the fields specially 
ours by the providence of God. For the most part, 
during the history of our foreign work, there has 
been a reasonable balance or agreement between 
our home interest and our mission growth abroad. 
Money has been wanting at times, but when the 
demand has sorely pressed, our churches have 
risen and met the exigency of the hour. In the 
necessarily slow growth of our work at first, amid 
the discouragements which must needs beset its 
early progress, to have held on, to have believed 
God, to have had faith in the ultimate triumph of 
the Gospel preached to the benighted, is proof of 
God's grace vouchsafed to us, and a cause of un- 
ceasing gratitude to Him who says, " Lo, I am with 
you always." There have been times when despair 
might have well nigh come to faith, discomfiture to 
patience, discouragement to hope, but God kept 
us toned and strong through these crises. We 
have waited for God, waited for blessings upon our 
Missionaries and for heavenly dews upon their 
fields ; and, meanwhile, have with moderate prompti- 
tude, steadiness and strength, held the rope, while 
our brethren have been exploring the mines. 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 335 

If our faith had been stronger, our prayers more 
fervent and full, and our gifts far larger, men for 
missions would have multiplied, and results have 
been quicker and ampler. But let us be thankful 
that for sixty-five years the Baptists of this country 
have steadily cherished the spirit of Missions, a 
spirit that has grown with their growth, and strength- 
ened with their strength, and that now, as never 
before, Missions have the hearts of our people. Is 
it too much to say, that having kept pace, in some 
degree, with the progress of our missions, we are 
better fitted, both by the general commitment of our 
brethren to the cause, and by the inspiration coming 
from abundant blessings upon our efforts abroad, to 
enter upon the new missionary epoch already come I 

Though of gradual accumulation, taking our mis- 
sion history together, the aggregate results of our 
work are great. 

In the summary of achievements we have in mind, 
and of which we predicate a grandeur and a glory 
which divine power and love alone can create, we 
take into the view our whole Foreign Mission work 
as a denomination, north and south. We contemplate 
American Baptists as a unit in missions. We speak 
as if no rupture between north and south had oc- 
curred in our missionary administration. We unite 
the Missionary Union and the Foreign Mission Board 
of the Southern Baptist Convention, as we were 
originally united from 1814 to 1846, in surveying the 



336 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

results of our great Foreign Missionary enterprise. 
Statistics to any considerable extent do not befit this 
article. But no one can contemplate our work with- 
out pride and thanksgiving. In the sixty-five years 
of our Foreign Missionary life, we have gained an 
enviable place among the hosts of God's chosen ones 
who have heard and heeded the Great Commission 
of the Lord Jesus. The men and women whom we 
have sent forth have been as the finest of the wheat. 
The renowned and sainted Judsons, who first cast 
themselves upon us from the promptings of con- 
science and duty, are the head of a long line of immor- 
tal names which have made our missionary annals 
glorious. Adoniram Judson and his earliest heroic 
wife are the first of a grand procession of shining 
ones whom the Lord has honored us in sending as 
messengers of salvation to the destitute. Though the 
first blaze in peerless resplendency never to suffer 
eclipse, they have had many, many worthy successors. 
What interest will cluster to the final scene when all 
these toiling, weary, shining ones shall say to the 
Master, Here are we and the multitudes thou hast 
given us from heathen realms ! How will we, that 
have prayed and given for their success, share in 
the raptures of that hour ! And these trophies of 
saving grace brought to that final crowning shall be 
many — from the north they shall come, and from the 
west, and from the land of Sinim; the abundance of the 
Sea and the forces of the Gentiles shall swell the 




SECOND BAPTIST CHURCH, ST. LOUIS, MO. 

RET. VT. W. BOYD, D. D.j PASTOK. 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 337 

numbers which they shall bring to the great corona- 
tion. We need to be in such relations of working 
fellowship and spiritual reciprocity to these honored 
missionaries, by our faith, love and gifts, that their 
works and glory shall be ours, and ours theirs. 

It cannot be questioned, that in results the mis- 
sions of the American Baptists stand preeminent. 
If this were the place to array them, and it were 
needful to do it, we could show by comparative fig- 
ures that our missions, with less money than either 
of the other three of the great Foreign Missionary 
Societies of this country, have had larger results in 
conversions than all of the missions of these other 
societies combined ! Not boastingly must this truth 
be set forth, but humbly and gratefully, and as a pious 
recognition of God's grace and approval. 

In our missions there have been times of great 
fruit-fulness, followed by seasons of lull, if not of 
spiritual impoverishment. As at home in our 
churches, so abroad, God's blessing comes in waves. 
There are large ingatherings in our missions at sea- 
sons. Between these periods profitable spaces often 
come, in which the work of compacting, centralizing, 
strengthening, marshalling Christian forces goes on. 
The first most notable period of blessing to our mis- 
sions, after the long, patient faith-struggle of Judson, 
crowned finally by the conversion and baptism of 
Moung Nan, was the great Karen Movement. In a 
very short time about ten thousand of these people 

22 



338 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

were converted and gathered into churches. Since 
that time the work has gone steadily on among that 
people, but not so rapidly. Perhaps twenty thousand 
of these Karens are now in churches, and thousands 
of Christian Karens have died in faith. After years 
of comparative quietness on the foreign field gen- 
erally, and of weakness, despair, agony, at that par- 
ticular mission, comes a flood of blessing upon the 
Teloogoo people. For years back, converts have 
been multiplied there " as doves flying to their win- 
dows/ 7 till the crowning year came, and that the last 
of which we have definite report — 1878 — during a 
few of the latter months of which ten thousand con- 
verted Teloogoos were baptized into the church at 
Ongole by the Eev. Mr. Clough and his helpers ! No ; 
that seems not the crowning year after all, but this, 
whose report we shall have in a few months, 1879, 
it may be is ; for Mr. Clough said, in February of ? 79, 
that forty thousand more of the Teloogoos were con- 
verted and awaiting baptism ! And 1879 may not be 
the crowning year, but we may be nearing the fulfill- 
ment of the promise that "A nation shall be born in 
a day." The great year shall be signalized by that, 
and soon the banner may be seen opening its crimson 
folds, to the joy of earth and heaven. May God 
hasten the time ! Surely we are brought to a day, by 
the wonders of Divine grace, when we must praise 
the God of missions as never before, for his bless- 
ings upon our efforts as a denomination in giving us 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 339 

this demonstration of the saving power of the Gos- 
pel, unequalled since the day of Pentecost, if even 
then ; and we are brought to a time when the demands 
upon us for enlargement are unmistakable and im- 
perious. 

The accumulated appliances and interests of our 
long established missions, and the signal blessings 
of God upon them, have vastly increased their 
tvants. To be indifferent to these, or not fully to 
meet them, is a turning back upon ourselves, an 
insult to our antecedents and traditions altogether 
unworthy of us. These demands upon us are at 
least threefold — relating to knowledge, men, money. 

We put knowledge -first, because if facts con- 
nected with our missions are known, helpers 
and means will follow. The rank and file of our 
church members have but little intelligence as to 
missions. Their early and thrilling history is a 
sealed book. The course of events filling up this 
history down to the present is not in our minds. 
The leaders of our churches, ministers, prominent 
laymen and influential women, in many instances 
are poorly informed as to missionary matters. The 
papers and periodicals giving current news con- 
cerning them are lamentably neglected. The weekly 
religious newspapers, and the missionary monthlies, 
are full of good things which are never seen by 
great numbers of us, because we are too poor, care- 
less, mean or lazy, to avail ourselves of these repos- 



340 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

itories of intelligence. A good religious weekly 
should be found in every Baptist family in this 
country. The organs of our missionary societies 
should be as widely circulated. An epitomized histo- 
ry of the origin and first years of this great mission- 
ary movement of ours should come into all our 
homes in some way. A cheap reprint of the Memoirs 
of the first Mrs. Judson, put up in strong paper or 
flexible cloth covers, and sent generously among the 
Baptist families of our land, would be as remunera- 
tive an investment as our Mission Boards could make. 
If pastors would inform themselves, and take mis- 
sions upon their hearts, and give out their facts and 
fire to the people, and keep it up, our churches 
would soon become educated in these most vital 
things. We owe it to our providential relation to 
missions, to our honored prominence in establishing 
them, to God who has so blest us in them, to the 
memories of the dead, and to the worth of the liv- 
ing men and women who have given themselves to 
this work, and owe it to the large demands of the 
present, consequent upon their stupendous growth, 
to inform ourselves as to the origin, development 
and glorious achievements of our missions. To 
know them, is to love, reinforce and support them. 

Becruits, to take the places of missionaries disa- 
bled or dead, are in constant and large demand. 
Others to occupy positions incident to enlargement 
and God's abounding blessing, are needed even 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 341 

more. These opening fields, far-spreading and wait- 
ing for the sickle, must have reapers. The barriers 
are now all down, and the world is an open field. 
The great cry is for men. The business of the 
churches now is to furnish the supply for which the 
world is clamoring, and which God's grand move- 
ments in missions imperiously demand. As never 
before, all signs indicate that drafts from our 
churches must be frequent and large. Cords are 
rapidly lengthening, and the boundaries of Christ's 
visible kingdom are impatient to encircle the whole 
earth. God's people must grasp the situation, and 
provide for the wants which are so pressing. Choice 
sons and daughters of our churches must not hold 
back, nor be held back from mission altars. What 
Lewis Shuck, in a great missionary meeting in Eich- 
mond many years ago, said upon a subscription 
card when the collection was being taken — " I give 
myself" — must be said by many to-day, or the 
ripened harvests of the heathen world will perish 
for lack of reapers. 

But money, as well as men, has rightful and 
needed place as a factor in this divine problem of 
missions. To fail here, is as if an army had no com- 
missariat. To be weak in exchequer is to leave the 
struggling host with no base of supplies. It would 
seem that the greater ought to carry the less — if 
men and women give themselves, it is a bold, im- 
pious, acted heresy, for others having it, holding the 



342 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

same relations of debt to God and the world, not to 
give their money. To-day, with all the rich tokens 
of God's favor upon the missions of both the For- 
eign Boards of American Baptists, their treasuries 
are empty, and the men in financial place by denom- 
inational call, are asked to make brick without 
straw. Every year they are confronted with the 
grim spectacle of probable debt at its fiscal close. 
These things ought not so to be. Where is the 
fault ? Largely with pastors. In too many instan- 
ces are missions regarded outside a pastor's care 
and effort. Pastors must educate churches in benevo- 
lence, or this withering curse of deficiency and debt 
will never be removed. But though we thus speak, 
we have faith that He to whom belong the silver 
and gold, and the cattle upon a thousand hills, will 
so rule the hearts of Christian men entrusted with 
these treasures as stewards, that there shall be 
proper proportion between offerings and demands, 
as to our missions. May time soon bring us to such 
a blessed agreement. It shall come, and money 
enough shall be given. An increased intelligence, a 
more correct view of what a church is for, and enter- 
ing into sympathy with Jesus by prayer and love in 
his great work of saving the world, will enlarge our 
souls and open our pockets. 

But still greater things than the wonders of the 
present are in reserve for Christ's church as a Mis- 
sionary Institution. Great possibilities are yet to be 
realized. 



BAPTISTS AND MISSIONS. 343 

The grand enterprises of the world in the interests 
of commerce, prophesy this more wondrous spread 
of the Gospel. They mark a new epoch in its reach 
and in its facilities for propagation. Commerce is 
ever throwing up highways for the Gospel. The 
quickened passages to China, Japan and India, by 
going West over rail, or East by the Suez Canal ; the 
longed-for and surely to be completed ship-cut 
through the Southern Isthmus; the proposed and 
probably not impracticable scheme of flooding the 
Great Eastern Desert so that ships may sail into the 
very heart of Africa — all these improved carrying 
facilities are rich in promise and means for an im- 
measurably wider heraldry of the Gospel. The fact 
that for the last twenty-five years all the huge under- 
takings for opening new carrying routes are in the 
direction of the great heathen populations of the 
earth, is profoundly significant to every student of 
Christian missions. Is it not time for us to go up 
higher and take a broader outlook upon the world ! 
Shall we not try to ascend those mountain heights of 
vision upon which Isaiah stood, when he told such 
wondrous things concerning the growth and triumphs 
of Christ's Kingdom ? To help to actualize what was 
in the rapt vision of the prophet is our work. What 
Carey and Judson and their long lines of honored 
successors on mission fields attempted to do, must 
be carried forward by the great Baptist family of 
England and America, and by the enlisted forces of 



344 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

other Christian communions, so as at length " the 
forces of the Gentiles" and the "abundance of the 
sea " shall traverse that highway which no vulture's 
eye hath seen, and no lion's whelp hath trod. 



THE PERMANENCE OF THE DIVINE PLAN; 
OE, SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 



BY REV. WAYLAND HOYT, D. D., PASTOR OF STRONG 
PLACE BAPTIST CHURCH, BROOKLYN, N. Y. 



" Then they sought to take him : but no man laid hands on 
him, because his hour was not yet come." — John vii. 30. • 

Because his hour was not yet come— that must 
hold our thought just now. 

Let us not think of our Lord Christ when he was 
upon earth, as always in the guise in which the 
painters chiefly picture him ; with a gentle and suf- 
fering mildness ever on his face and in his mein; 
with never the flash of a righteous indignation strik- 
ing out from him— a much enduring, even somewhat 
effeminate Christ, with more of the yielding and 
dependence of the woman than the vigor of the 
man. 

When John, in the Spirit on the Lord's day, caught 
sight of him afterwards, at Patinos, he saw him wear- 
ing no such unresisting aspect. " His eyes were as 
a flame of fire ; his feet were like unto fine brass, as 
if they burned in a furnace ; his voice was as the 
sound of many waters; out of his mouth went a 
.sharp two-edged sword, and his countenance was as 

345 



346 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the sun shinetk in his strength." And I am sure 
that often during his tarrying upon our earth, 
even as the lightning breaks out of the darkening 
cloud, the stroke of rebuke of unbelief and evil- 
thinking and evil-living burst, scathing, from the lips 
even of the meek Christ. For we must remember 
always that sinlessness is not a merely passive 
freedom from any tarnish on its whiteness, but is 
also an active going forth against anything which 
would seek to tarnish. It is battle against impurity, 
because it is purity. It is flaming fight against wrong, 
because itself is righteousness. To be Christian is 
not to stand upon the defensive only. It is to grasp 
the sword, to enter into combat, to push on into the 
offensive against evil, too. So, I am sure that the 
glance of eye like flame, and the steady tread of 
feet like brass, and the distinct and cleaving words 
like quick cut of a two-edged sword, were to be 
heard and seen, even during the earthly humiliation 
of our Lord. Every Christian ought to illustrate the 
ability of being angry and sinning not. We may be 
certain our Lord illustrated it. 

You will find it thus just now, if you will carefully 
read the context. This seventh chapter of John is a 
battle chapter. You can hear the clashing strokes 
of the sword of Truth against the shields of Error. 
Christ is standing in the fire front of opposition. It 
is the feast time. Jerusalem is crowded. The relig- 
ious leaders are seeking to block his influence. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 347 

They turn his sermons in the Temple courts into con- 
tentions. They interrupt him. They try to trap him. 
They lay plots for his life. Upon one thing they 
are determined — they will not believe him nor 
let the people. There is the stir of a great turmoil 
through this chapter. Because he has wrought 
a miracle of healing upon the Sabbath, the people, 
under the suggestion of their leaders, say that 
Christ has broken the Sabbath law. Then they 
listen to the great words he speaks, and get moved 
to the depths. Messiah himself could not speak more 
grandly or convincingly. Also, his tender and gentle 
deeds of healing and of mercy touch them. They 
are caught in cross-currents of feeling. They know 
not what to think or what to say. They cry, " Do the 
rulers know indeed that this is verily Messiah V 7 
Then the influence of the religious rulers again over- 
sweeps and triumphs. Then the people bethink 
themselves of an old Eabbinical tradition and test of 
the Messiah — that he was indeed to be born in Beth- 
lehem, but that straightway he was to be snatched 
out of sight by spirits and by tempests ; that he was 
to be hidden for a while; that unexpectedly and 
supernaturally he was to reappear and enter on his 
mission. With the changing humor of a crowd, 
whose feeling sets one way, though there may be 
refluent ripples on the surface, the people apply this 
test, and say, "This Jesus who pretends to be Messiah 
fails before it. When Messiah cometh, no man know- 



348 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

eth whence he is ; howbeit as for this fellow, we know 
whence he is. Ko ; he cannot be Messiah." Then, 
against their obdurate unbelief and evil speech, the 
righteous indignation of the Master flashes out. He 
asserts himself. He pushes on into the offensive. It 
is the time for severity, for the quick strokes of the 
two-edged sword of Truth. There in the Temple, as 
he teaches, Jesus cries out, "Ye do indeed know me, 
and ye know whence I am ; and I am not come of 
myself, but it is the True One who hath sent me ; him 
ye do not know. I know him, for I have come from 
him, and he it is who hath sent me forth." As another 
has explained it, " In his miracles and his instructions 
they had seen and heard enough to assure them that 
he was from God. Their contemptuous declaration, 
4 We know this fellow,' he transformed into an indict- 
ment against them. 'Ye do know me,' he says, 'and 
ye know whence I am, for the authentication of my 
divine mission is ample. Ye do know that I am not 
come of myself, for my whole life is a conclusive 
demonstration that I am not a self-seeker.' But the 
One True God, him they did not and could not know. 
He knew him, for he had been his companion from 
eternity. This tone of fearless assumption, in which 
he at once claimed to be from the only true God, and 
declared that they did not even know him whose 
peculiar people it was their peculiar boast to be, 
.angered the crowd, angered especially the leaders." 1 

1 Abbott's Commentary, in loco. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 349 

Their answer is that of attempted arrest and the 
gagging of prison and of death. 

But, somehow, they cannot take him. Notwith- 
standing the command of the leaders and the 
fierce feeling and the fierce tumult, no man will lay 
hands on Jesus. Something, somehow, holds them 
back. 

Still the stir continues ; now another refluent wave 
sets in. The people ask each other, " When Messiah, 
coineth, will he do more miracles than these which 
this one hath done 1 There begins to be a flowing 
forth of faith toward Jesus. Many of the people 
believe on him. 

So the leaders assume authority more regular and 
distinctively official. By decree of the Sanhedrim, 
they send officers to take him. 

Meanwhile, the critical tumult having overpassed 
a little, Christ goes on with his wonderful heart- 
touching, heart-searching speech. Probably on that 
day he is not further troubled. 

But the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles comes 
round. It is the Hosanna Eabba. It is the great day. 
There is the grand procession passing seven times 
round the city with palms, with instruments of music, 
with sounding choirs, to commemorate the ancient 
capture of Jericho. There is, by other multitudes 
led by priests and Levites carrying golden vessels, 
the streaming to the brook of Siloah; that amid 
jubilant clamorings on every side — Ho, every one 



350 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

that thirsteth. With j oy shall ye draw water from the 
wells of salvation!— the sacred water may be drawn, 
and from thence borne to the temple for libation at 
the morning sacrifice. It is much more than likely 
that, as this very ceremonial was going on — the vast 
crowds pouring themselves back from Siloah through 
the temple gates, the priests bearing the water toward 
the altar — Jesus stood and cried, " If any man thirst, 
let him come unto ME and drink." It was the burning 
weather of the autumn. It was the parched time 
before the falling of the latter rain. Always in Pal- 
estine, to tell of water was to use a spell. The rivers 
of living water which were to flow forth from him 
who should believe in Jesus seemed to tell of a 
refreshment deeper and truer than that the most 
splendid ceremonial could supply. 1 The people's 
hearts were strangely touched. " Of a truth this is 
the Prophet," some cried out. " This is the Christ," 
still others said. But others questioned, " Shall 
Messiah come out of Galilee?" So the ferment 
grew again. 

And here were the officers, with their orders to 
make this troubler prisoner. They try, and yet they 
cannot. At length they go back to their chiefs, 
empty-handed still, and with this excuse upon their 
lips, " Never man spake like this man." 

Now, the Scripture which makes the text gives us 
the reason for this strange helplessness — of the 

l Geike's Life of Christ, Vol. 2, p. 293. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 351 

leaders, of the people smitten by various passions as 
the tempests smite the sea, of the officers. After- 
wards they do take him. They scourge him. They 
crucify him. But not now. They cannot do it now. 
And why ? God's time for it had not struck. On 
the dial of his purpose the hands of his appointment 
had not reached the hour. Until that moment, the 
mob might rage, but they could not capture. Then 
they sought to take him ; but no man laid hands on 
him, because Ms hour was not yet come, — that was the 
reason. 

So the truth which flashes out upon us from this 
Scripture is the Permanence of the Divine Plan. It 
binds the leaders, the people, the officials. It holds 
them back. Wait, O raging waves ! — then — but not 
till then. The hour has not yet come — the Perma- 
nence of the Divine Plan. And to affirm this is only 
to declare in another way the Doctrine of a Special 
Providence. 

First. — Let us be frank, and confess the mystery 
of this matter. 

In the year 1608, there lived a Hollander whose 
name was Lippershey. He discovered that, by look- 
ing through two glass lenses in a certain way, objects 
distant were made larger, and could be seen distinct- 
ly. That was the seed of the telescope. The year 
afterwards Galileo heard of the fact, and, without 
knowing the principles of their construction, never- 
theless invented for himself a form of the instrument. 



352 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Working at it, and gradually improving it, he suc- 
ceeded in making a telescope which could magnify 
thirty times. He turned it on the moon. He found 
that its surface was diversified like that of our own 
earth; that there were mountains, and valley s between 
them, and that the mountains cast deep shadows into 
the valleys. On the night of the 7th of January, 1610, 
he was looking through the telescope at the planet 
Jupiter. He saw near Jupiter three small stars in a 
straight line. A few evenings later he saw a fourth. 
Gazing at them evening after evening, he discov- 
ered that they were revolving in orbits round the 
planet in regular times and at regular distances. He 
was the first to see the moons of Jupiter. Here was 
positive proof of the astronomical theory of Coper- 
nicus. As the moons went round Jupiter, so Jupiter 
went round its centre, so the earth traveled round its 
centre, too, and its moon round it. The old thought 
that the earth was centre, and that everything went 
round it, was clearly wrong. The new thought that 
the sun was center, and that all the planets circled 
it, was clearly right. That new and better thought 
made a real science of astronomy possible. Yes, 
the moons of Jupiter were facts. The telescope dis- 
covered them. And the vast inferences from these 
revolving moons were facts as well. It was a won- 
derful night for truth when Galileo first caught vision 
through his little tube and his imperfect lenses of 
these revolving moons. x 

l Draper's Conflict Between Religion and Science, p. 169. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 353 

But now, facts of which the telescope tells, and tho 
microscope tells, and the chemical test tube tells, arc 
not all the facts which exist in the universe. Some 
people seem to think they are, but they are not. 

Here is a man. He turns his thought inward upon 
himself. He thinks about himself. He studies him- 
self. He is a mightier fact than these moons which 
Galileo saw. If a section of the sun falling earthward 
should smite that man to death, he would yet be 
greater than the sun, for he would know that he was 
slain, while the sun would not know that it was slay- 
ing, as Pascal has told us. 

Well, this man is turning his thought inward on 
himself, and immediately he comes upon this great 
fact of consciousness, that he is morally free, and, 
therefore, that he is morally responsible. That 
is as certain a fact to every man as are the moons 
of Jupiter when he sees them through a telescope. 
It is a fact of another kind. It is a fact internal, and 
not external. It is a fact of consciousness, and not 
a fact of physics. But, notwithstanding, it is 3^et a 
certainty — every man is free in his moral choices, 
and so every man is responsible. Mr. Tyndall, not 
long ago, in Birmingham, made a speech in which he 
denied this fundamental fact of a moral and human 
freedom. Mr. Tyndall is telling the robber, ravisher, 
murderer, that he cannot help his robbing, ravishing, 
murdering. The man is plunged into a good deal of 
perplexity. He always thought, before, he could help 

23 



354 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

it. So lie turns round and asks the renowned lec- 
turer, " What do you hold me responsible, then, 
for? what do you punish me, then, for? 77 And Mr. 
Tyndall answers : " You offend because you cannot 
help offending, to the public detriment. We punish 
because we cannot help punishing, for the public 
good." Now, there is just one short and easy, and, 
at the same time, severely scientific answer to such 
a " cannot help " philosophy. This robber, ravisher, 
murderer, or any other man doing wrongly, knows 
Mr. Tyndall is speaking falsely to him, when he tells 
him he cannot help it. He knows he can help it, if he 
will help it. He knows he ought to help it since he 
can help it. He knows, everybody knows,— it is a fact 
of moral consciousness, as real as the physical fact 
of the moons of Jupiter, — that every one is free in 
his moral choices, and that, therefore, he is morally 
responsible. 

But now the Scripture which makes the text, and 
much other Scripture also, lifts into view another 
great divine fact — that of the Permanence of the 
Divine Plan, and therefore necessarily a Special 
Divine Providence constantly working toward the 
realization of that Plan. God has a purpose in this 
world. That purpose stands and stays. That pur- 
pose organizes about itself all forces and instru- 
ments for its accomplishment. The accomplishing 
of that Plan is a special and controlling Providence. 
Notwithstanding the free moral action of human 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 355 

wills, that Providence is at work, bringing that plan 
to bloom. To the last jot and to the last title, and 
precisely in the Divine time as well, that Divine Pur- 
pose is going to get itself finished. It is not going 
to hurry. It is not going to delay. Xothing can 
thwart God, nothing can hinder God. " Then they 
sought to take him, but no man laid his hands on 
him, because his hour icas not yet come." In the Perma- 
nent Divine Plan, a special Providence took hold 
of these leaders, people and officers, and con- 
trolled them. They were perfectly free on the one 
hand, they were perfectly controlled on the other. 
Through a Providence special to each one of them 
they must render ministry to the Divine and Perma- 
nent Plan. 

Certainly there is mystery here. What shall we 
do with it? Say there is no human freedom, or 
declare there is no permanence of divine plan, and 
so no special providence out-working it ? ]No, we are 
to hold fast to a human freedom and to a special 
providence bringing the divine plan to fruitage, and 
confess the mystery. Here is a mighty pyramid. Its 
base sweeps off in an unmeasured distance. Upon 
one of its majestic sides I find words like these let 
down into the stone's heart : " Whom he did fore- 
know he also did predestinate. He shall cause the 
wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder shall 
he restrain," and when I read the words I say: As 
fixed as fate is each man's destiny. God holds every- 



356 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

thing in his hands. But after weary miles of travel 
I pass around to this pyramid's other side, and lo ! 
there I read these words just as deeply sculptured: 
" Choose ye whom you will serve." " Whosoever will 
let him come." And with the memory of those other 
words and of what they taught me still strong within 
me, in the presence of these I must say notwith- 
standing, all is as man shall choose ; his destiny is in 
his own hands. Yet both are written on the same 
pyramid, and I notice that both sides slope upward 
toward the apex. But when in my perplexity I look 
aloft to see if these apparently opposing sides can 
ever meet, above that summit I discern only the 
thickest mists, and that is all. 

What, then, am I to do % Both teachings are writ- 
ten on the same pyramid. I will accept the appa- 
rently opposing truths, notwithstanding the mystery. 
I will be glad the world cannot shackle to loose 
ends because there is a permanent Divine Plan and 
therefore a Special Providence urging that Plan's 
completion; I will be sure that men are free, and so 
responsible. As to the mystery, I will wait till 
heaven's light lifts its mists from the majestic pyramid 
of the Divine Be velation. 

Secondly. — While we confess the mystery of a per- 
manent divine plan, through a special providence 
laying its grasp upon all natural laws and forces and 
all freely-acting human wills, let us nevertheless 
affirm that though the doctrine may be above reason, 
it is not against reason. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 357 

It is not an unreasonable doctrine. That is to say, 
it is not against the analogy of things ; it is in accord- 
ance with that analogy. One thing is certain : God 
cannot deny himself; therefore, this other thing is 
certain, that, in the grasp of this permanent Divine 
Plan through a special providence, upon all natural 
facts and forces and also upon the free choices of 
human wills, there can be no break or fracture of the 
laws ruling them since these laws God has himself 
appointed. Such breakage and fracture would be 
God's denial of himself. The question comes, is there 
any analogy which may at least suggest to me how this 
special providence may push on the blooming of 
God ? s purpose without injury to these presiding 
laws ? In the light of such analogy, while this 
doctrine of a special providence may be above my 
reason, and while I may freely confess it to be so, I 
may be still sure that it is not against my reason. 

I think the analogy from our human use of natural 
law will help us here. 

The advance of science, how wonderful it is ! I 
get aboard a steamship, and in a few days, against 
the tides and winds and sweeping ocean currents, I 
am borne across the Atlantic. This my fathers could 
not do. What I can do in days they could scarcely 
accomplish in as many months. They were the sport 
of tides and hostile winds. I enter a telegraph office 
and send my question to a friend in London through 
the great wide sea, and get his answer almost in a 



358 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

moment. This my fathers could not do. They must 
wait months for an answer, until the slow-sailing ship 
brought in the tardy mails. I turn the crank of a 
phonograph and find, to my amazement, that it has 
caught and kept even the most evanescent varieties 
of my tone and accent, the rapidity or the slowness 
of my speech, the words that I have spoken into the 
yielding air. Surely this marvel was never for my 
fathers. 

By what means have these things been accom- 
plished, and a thousand others like them I Through 
the breaking of any natural law? Nay, verily! 
Through a better knowledge of, and so through a 
better obedience to the laws of steam and electric- 
ity and sound, and the skillful manipulation of them to 
special uses. These vast achievements result from 
a truer knowledge of, and a profounder obedience 
to, natural law. They do not come, they never could 
have come, from the breaking of natural law. 

God knows all laws; those which preside over 
physics, those which preside over the free and subtle 
human soul. With God's knowledge is conjoined 
also infinite power and infinite skill. I am unable to 
conceive hoiv he may do it ; but I am not unable to 
conceive that infinite knowledge and infinite power 
and infinite skill may, without injury to a gossamer 
thread of law, through a special providence, cause 
and complete the actualization of his own majestic 
plan. If man can do so much through law, surely 
God can do infinitely more. 



SPECIAL PROVIDENCE. 350 

And so, to me at least, this analogy from the human 
sceptre over natural law assures me that while the 
doctrine of a special providence may be above my 
reason, it is not against it — it is not unreasonable. 

Thirdly, — Let us get the comfort of this serene 
truth of a permanent Divine Plan working itself out 
through a special Divine Providence. "Prevent- 
ively," " permissively," " directively," " determina- 
tively," it may work, but this providence works on 
toward the highest and holiest, since it is but the 
expression and actualization of the Divine Plan. 

There is comfort in it. Once my little child taught 
me a deep lesson. I was changing my residence ; we 
were in the turmoil of moving. The pictures were 
taken from the walls ; the carpets were rolled from 
the floors. Her nursery had been invaded ; her toys 
must be captured and packed as well. Apparently 
to her it was the destruction of her home. But 
I noticed that as she went about through the 
desolate rooms she was as joyful and as fearless, and 
was ringing out a laugh as merry as when her toys 
were at her hand and the house was ordered from 
the basement to the attic. I waited and watched 
her, and asked myself why her childish comfort could 
be so little blighted. This was the answer to my 
question about my child: She had utter faith in my 
thought for her, and in the means by which I was 
carrying out my thought. We are to have such faith 
in the greater Father's thought and in his means. 



360 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Who shall say that there is not for any Christian the 
profoundest comfort here ? 

There is comfort for the Christian worker. The 
cause of God must triumph shiningly, and the meshes 
of this special providence are so fine that no word 
of prayer or deed of duty done to help it on can slip 
through into loss or uselessness. 

There is comfort for the Christian who is meeting 
trial. The Kohinoor, the mountain of light from 
India, was a gem most wonderful. But it was poorly 
cut, and so the inward fires of its lustre were some- 
what dimmed. For more than a month they set 
whirling at it the emery wheels armed with diamond- 
dust. They removed a third of it ; but it gleamed 
now a perfect gem. It was into no careless hands 
they gave the duty. He was the best diamond- 
worker who could be found. He knew what he was 
about, and his instruments were the best possible. 
We need the grind ings and rubs of trial. But God's 
design for us is the best possible, and it is his special 
providence which uses the tools. 

And even death must wear a shining face when we 
see it through the lease of his appointment and 
remember that a special providence shall bring it in 
his time. We must be immortal till our work is done ; 
then dying is coronation. 



THE BIBLICAL DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. 



BY REV. ALVAH HOVEY, D. D., PRESIDENT OF NEWTON 
THEOLOGICAL INSTITUTION, MASS. 



li Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost. "' Matt, xxviii. 19. 

This tex^ lias been chosen, not because it speaks 
of Christian baptism, but because it speaks of a 
Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 
For my article will attempt to state the Biblical 
doctrine of a Trinity — a doctrine which is often 
denominated a mystery, though not always in the 
scriptural sense of this term. For the word " mys- 
tery " is used by the sacred writers to denote a fact 
or truth which could not have been discovered by 
the unassisted mind of man, but which has been 
revealed by the Saviour or by the Holy Spirit. In 
this sense it was employed by Christ when he told 
his disciples why he was teaching them plainly, and 
the people in parables. " Unto 3*011 it is given to know 
the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but to them it 
is not given." ( Matt. xiii. 11.) And in the same sense 
it was used by Paul when he informed the Colossians 
that he had been made a minister " to fulfill the word 
of God, even the mystery which hath been hid from 

361 



362 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ages and from generations, but now is made manifest 
to Ms saints. 77 ( Gol. i. 26.) A mystery, then, in its 
proper, biblical sense, is simply a fact or truth made 
known by revelation. It may, therefore, be plain or 
obscure, comprehensible or incomprehensible. 

But many of the facts revealed by Christ, or by 
holy men who were enlightened by the Spirit of God, 
are " hard to be understood." They do not fall within 
the range of our earthly experience. They belong to 
the world that is unseen and spiritual. They refer 
to modes of existence and of intercourse that puzzle 
the understanding. And so we have gradually come 
to apply the word to any fact or truth which is incom- 
prehensible. In this sense the word is commonly 
used when we speak of the Divine Trinity. We call 
the doctrine of the Triune God a mystery, not so 
much because it is a revealed truth as because it is an 
obscure truth. Doubtless it is both ; for all our knowl- 
edge of it is derived from the Bible, and all that the 
Bible says fails to explain the amazing fact. It " half 
reveals and half conceals " a mode of the divine 
existence which differs greatly from anything in our 
own. Obviously, then, we ought to listen with deep 
reverence to the testimony of Christ and of his 
Apostles while they utter "wondrous things" con- 
cerning "him whom no man hath seen or can see." 

The word " Trinity " is not applied by any sacred 
writer to the Supreme Being, but it has been used 
a long time by Christians to express what they 



THE TRINITY. 363 

suppose to be a doctrine of the Xew Testament in 
respect to God. Trinity, abbreviated from tri-unity, 
is formed of two words, which signify, respectively, 
"three" and "one," and is affirmed of God because 
he is believed to be three in one — that is, in a certain 
respect three, and in another respect one. Thus 
Trinity and Unity are affirmed of the Godhead, but 
they are not both affirmed of the same thing in 
the Godhead. In harmony with the great body of 
Christian teachers in the past, we believe that the 
Unity of God is essential, and the distinctions in God 
personal. But by the latter expression we do not 
mean that the Father is as separate and secluded in 
consciousness from the Son as a human father is 
from his son; we only mean to say that whatever dis- 
tinction there is between the Father and the Son is 
of & personal nature. For it seems to us very evident 
that the Scriptures teach three things, namely, that 
there is but one true God; that the Father, the Son, 
and the Holy Spirit are, each of them, truly Divine or 
God ; and that these three are in a personal respect 
distinguishable from one another. Let us look at 
some of the evidence for each of these propositions. 
I. The Scriptures teach that there is hut one living 
and true God. This statement is rarely called in ques- 
tion by any person familiar with the sacred record ; 
for it represents the prevailing tone and spirit of that 
record. It is the deep underlying assumption which 
supports every message of every prophet ; and it is 



364 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

often expressed. With all the emphasis possible 
Moses cried : " Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is 
one Jehovah." ( Deut. vi. 4.) With no less assurance 
Malachi asks : " Have we not all one Father f Hath 
not one God created us?" (ii. 10.) And the Most 
High declares by the pen of Isaiah : " I am Jehovah, 
that is my name, and my glory will I not give to 
another." (xlii. 8). " Before me there was no God 
formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, 
;am Jehovah, and besides me there is no Saviour." 
(xlii. 10, 11.) " I am the first and the last, and besides 
me there is no God." (xliv. G.) If further evidence is 
needed, a large part of the fortieth chapter of Isaiah 
may be read ; for it is a passage of wonderful majesty, 
asserting that Jehovah, in contrast with idols, is the 
only God, the Creator, the Preserver, and the Euler 
of all things. And this doctrine of one God, so 
clearly announced by the prophets, became at last 
the settled creed of the Jews, and was made by them 
an excuse for rejecting Jesus Christ as a blasphemer, 
instead of receiving him as the Son of God. Yet 
the Saviour himself taught that there is but one true 
God, (e. g. Mark x. 18); and while he claimed to be 
strictly divine, he so identified himself with the' 
Father that the unity of God was maintained. 

As to the nature of the divine unity, we hold that it 
is essential, or in other words, that the proper essence 
or substance of the Father, the Son, and the Holy 
Spirit is forever one and the same — a simple, indivis- 



THE TRINITY. 365 

ible, self- existent, everlasting principle of life, intel- 
ligence, wisdom, love and power. This language 
describes what is implied in the words of the sacred 
writers ; it offers a key that will fit into all the state- 
ments of Scripture and lay open to us their treasures 
of wisdom. Do the sacred writers lay great stress 
on the Unity of God, as if it were a fundamental 
characteristic of His being ? This view accounts for 
their so doing, for by a law of our reason we attach 
even greater importance to being than to manifesta- 
tion, even though that manifestation be personal* 
Do they represent the distinctions of the Godhead as 
personal? This view is consistent with the repre- 
sentation, for it has never been proved that unity of 
essence carries with it unity of person. Do they 
ascribe equal knowledge, goodness, wisdom, and 
right to the divine Father, Son and Spirit? This 
view explains their doctrine, for the same attributes 
ought naturally to inhere in personal beings whose 
underlying and essential nature is one and the same. 
Does the Saviour say, " I and my Father are one,' 7 
(John, x. 30); that is, one in guarding the flock, one 
in power, one thing, using a neuter form of the word 
one f This view accounts for the saying better than 
any other with which we are acquainted ; for power, 
in the last analysis, belongs to essence, and if the 
essence of the Father and the Son is one and the 
same, their power may well be one. In the light of 
these facts it seems to us that the Unity of God is 
essential. 



366 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

II. The Scriptures plainly teach that the Father, the 
Son and the Holy Spirit are, each of them, truly divine, 
or God. We are not now concerned about the agree- 
ment of this teaching with the doctrine that God is 
one, but are seeking to show that this teaching is to 
be found in the New Testament. If found there, we 
may be sure that it agrees with the Unity of God, 
even though we should be unable to comprehend the 
mystery of the divine nature, and demonstrate this 
agreement. Taking one step at a time, let us search 
for the testimony of the inspired Word as to the 
Deity of the Father, and of the Son, and of the 
Holy Spirit. 

Christians of every name freely admit that the 
Father is often called God, and is always represented 
by the sacred writers as truly divine. That Chris- 
tians are right in doing this may be proved by a 
single text ; for in his Epistle to the Ephesians Paul 
declares there is " one God and Father of all, who is 
over all and through all and in you all." ( iv. 6.) If 
we add to this the fact that, while there are several 
passages of the New Testament in which the term 
God may signify the Supreme Being, without any 
special reference to the Father, and a few in which 
it is applied to the Son or to the Holy Spirit, there 
are very many in which this term is applied to the 
Father — no further proof will be necessary. The 
proper Deity of the Father will be accepted as a 
certain truth of Scripture. 



THE TRINITY. 3G7 

In regard to the Deity of the Son, we appeal, first, 
to the language of Thomas when Jesus appeared to 
him in the evening of the eighth day after his resur- 
rection. For seeing Jesus before him, he said unto 
him : " My Lord and my God." ( John, xx. 28.) If 
this was not a definite acknowledgment of the Deity 
of Christ, I am at a loss to conceive how such an 
acknowledgment could have been made. And the 
Saviour did not protest against it. He who had 
recently come from Paradise with the awe of the 
unseen and holy Father upon him, did not rebuke 
the words of his disciples, though, if he was less 
than God, they were false and blasphemous. 

We appeal secondly to the words of Paul, exhorting 
the Phillipians : " Let this mind be in you which was 
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, 
thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but 
made himself of no reputation," etc. ( ii. 56.) These 
words teach that equality with God was freely relin- 
quished by Jesus Christ when He left His heavenly 
state or condition to become man. But no being can 
relinquish or forego that which is beyond his reach ; 
no one can relinquish his equality with God whose 
nature does not qualify him to be on a level with God, 
to share his condition and glory. With this passage 
may be compared another in the Epistle to the Colos- 
sians, written about the same time, in which, speaking 
or Christ, he says that " all things have been created 
by him and for him," and that "in him all things 



368 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

consist," (i. 16, 17); while a little further on he 
declares that "in him dwelleth all the fullness of the 
Godhead bodily." (ii. 8.) Or we may turn to one of 
his earlier epistles, namely, that sent to the Romans, 
and hear him say of the Israelites : " Whose are the 
fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ 
came, who is God over all, blessed forever." (ix. 5.) 
We appeal thirdly to the language of John in his 
prologue to the Fourth Gospel, who says that "the 
Word was God," that "all things were made by 
Him," that " in Him was life," and that " the life was 
the light of men." (i. 1-4.) With these words of the 
disciple whom Jesus loved we may compare the 
sayings of Christ himself: " The Son can do nothing 
of himself" or from himself; that is, so close is the 
union between the Father and Son that any action of 
the Son, separate from that of the Father, is impos- 
sible. Hence the full expression is this : " The Son 
can do nothing from himself but what he seeth the 
Father do; for what things soever he (the Father) 
doeth, these in like manner doeth the Son also. For 
as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth 
them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." 
(v. 19-21.) " I am the light of the world." ( vii. 12.) 
" Before Abraham was, I am." ( viii. 5-8.) " He that 
hath seen me hath seen the Father.' 7 (xiv. 9.) "I 
and my Father are one." (x. 30; xvii. 22.) This last 
expression was twice used by the Lord — once to 
affirm the inseparable unity of his own action and 



THE TRINITY. 369 

his Father's, and once to affirm his moral unity with 
the Father. 

We have here given but a small part of the bib- 
lical evidence that Christ is truly God, but enough 
to establish this proposition as a doctrine of the 
Christian religion. Our Saviour is divine as well as 
human, and we are constrained to take account of 
His divinity in forming our conception of the God- 
head. 

But if the Son is truly God, so likewise is the 
Spirit. This might be inferred with some degree of 
probability from the designation itself; for as the 
spirit of man is that part of his being which is high- 
est, freest, most intelligent, it is surely improbable 
that inspired men would apply such a name as Spirit 
of God, or Holy Spirit, to anything less high and holy 
than God himself. The same might be inferred with 
still greater confidence from the fact that divers 
acts, such as inspiration, regeneration, sanctification 
and the like are ascribed sometimes to God, some- 
times to Christ, sometimes to the Spirit of God, 
sometimes to the Spirit of Christ, and sometimes to 
the Holy Spirit; while a careful examination and 
comparison of all these representations lead to the 
belief that it is the Holy Spirit who accomplishes, 
by direct agency, the divine will in human souls. 
Moreover, the proper deity of the Holy Spirit 
appears to be assumed by Peter in his address to 
Ananias : " Why hath Satan filled thy heart to lie to 

24 



370 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price 
of the land? " * * * " Why hast thou conceived 
this thing in thy heart ? Thou hast not lied unto men, 
but unto God." (Acts v. 3, 4.) The same assump- 
tion is also made by Paul in these words : " Know ye 
not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit 
of God dwelleth in you ? » (I. Cor. iii. 16.) That is, 
God dwells in his temple, and ye are God's temple, 
because the Spirit of God dwells in you, for the Spirit 
is God. But we need not multiply citations, for there 
seems to be in fact no biblical ground for doubt as to 
the divinity of the Holy Spirit. It may be necessary 
to collect with some care the evidence that he is 
personal, but it is needless to prove that he is Divine, 
III. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are 
distinguishable in a personal respect from one another. 
Personality is selfhood, and by a personal being we 
mean a being that is intelligent, self-conscious, vol- 
untary — a being that knows, feels, wills. Let us 
observe what the Scriptures teach in respect to a 
personal distinction between the Father and the Son, 
( 1.) They make use of these terms as divine names, 
and these terms, Father and Son, point to distinc- 
tions of a personal nature. They are applicable to 
beings that know, love, plan and choose. Any other 
use of them is intensely figurative. Yet they are 
used very often by the Saviour, when his language 
is otherwise plain, sober, didactic. And they are 
often accompanied by other expressions which rest 



THE TRINITY. 371 

on the idea of a personal distinction between the 
Father and the Son. (2.) The pronouns I, thou, he 
and we, are often employed by Jesus in speaking of 
himself, of the Father, or of both, and they imply the 
personality of himself and of His Father, as well as 
some distinction between the two. Thus : "J thank 
thee, O Father, Lord of Heaven and earth." ( Matt. 
xi. 25.) " Glorify thou me with the glory which I had 
with thee before the world was." (John xvii. 5.) 
"Even as thou, Father, art in me, and Jin TJiee, that 
they also may be in us." (John xvii. 21.) If this use 
of the pronouns does not prove that there is some 
distinction of a personal nature between the Father 
and the Son, it is not easy to imagine any kind of 
evidence which would be accepted as proof of such 
a distinction. (3.) Christ distinguishes between His 
own knowledge and the Father's. Thus: "No one 
knoweth the Son but the Father; neither knoweth 
any one the Father b*ut the Son, and he to whom the 
Son will reveal Him." (Matt. xi. 27.) "The Father 
loveth the Son, and showeth Him all things that 
himself doeth." (John v. 20.) Both these testimo- 
nies—one preserved in the Gospel of Matthew, and 
the other in the Gospel of John— imply that the 
intellect of the Son is, properly speaking, distin- 
guishable from that of the Father. And the same 
may be said of nearly every passage in the New 
Testament which refers to the knowledge of either. 
(4.) Christ distinguishes between his own affection 



372 BAPTIST DOCTEINES. 

and his Father's ; not indeed as to the moral char- 
acter of that affection, but as to the heart that 
exercises it. " The Father loveth the Son," (John v. 
20), is a declaration of Jesus himself, and it accords 
with the voice from Heaven : " This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased." ( Matt. iii. 17.) As 
to the Son's love of the Father, we find it expressed 
in such terms as these : " My meat is to do the will 
of him that sent me." ( John iv. 34.) " I honor my 
Father." (John viii. 49.) "I know him and keep 
his word." (John viii. 55.) "I do always those 
things which please him." ( John viii. 29.) It is then 
certain that the Father loves the Son, and the Son 
the Father; and it is no less certain that mutual 
affection implies distinctions of a personal nature. 
(5.) Christ distinguishes between his own will and 
his Father's will. "If I glorify myself, my glory is 
nothing; it is my Father that glorifieth me." (John 
viii. 54.) "I seek not mine own glory; there is one 
that seeketh and judgeth." ( John viii. 50.) " Not my 
will, but thine, be done." (Luke xxii. 42.) There is, 
of course, a sense in which the Father's will is the 
same as the Son's ; for they agree in willing the same 
holy ends ; but if the passages quoted by us are to 
have any natural interpretation, the faculty of will in 
the Father is in some way and measure distinct from 
the faculty of will in the Son, and this distinction is 
clearly personal. 
Finally, it must be observed that every particle of 



THE TRINITY. 373 

evidence to be found in the New Testament for any 
kind of Trinity in the Godhead, goes to prove that 
the distinctions marked by the words Father, Son, 
and Holy Spirit are of a personal nature. All the 
Scriptural evidence, we say, looks towards this Mnd 
of a distinction, and not as some would have us 
believe, to something else which is utterly, and it 
may be forever, hidden from us in the depths of the 
Divine nature. 

But, if we admit the personality of the Son to be 
distinguishable from that of the Father, is it neces- 
sary to take a similar view of the Holy Spirit ? May 
we not think of the latter as being only a certain 
divine influence or operation by which the Father 
and the Son move upon the hearts of men? In 
answer to these questions, it may be said : 1. That 
our appeal must still be made to biblical evidence. 
Where that leads, it is necessary for us to follow; 
for on this subject there is no other valid evidence 
within our reach. 2. That all the logical difficulties 
involved in the doctrine of a tripersonal God are 
encountered in the doctrine of a bipersonal God, the 
Father and the Son, and as we must accept the latter, 
there is no reason why we should not accept the 
former, if it is supported by preponderating evidence. 
3. That the biblical evidence for the personality of 
the Holy Spirit is amply sufficient to justify belief in 
the same. Eecall the words of my text, " Baptizing 
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and 



374 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

of the Holy Ghost." Is it easy to suppose that the 
Lord Jesus here associates an influence or operation 
with himself and the Father ? binding them together 
by the word " name " ? Can we believe that he 
intended to say, " Baptizing them into the name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy influence 
which is exercised by the Father and the Son?" 
Read the Apostle's benediction " The grace of the 
Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the com- 
munion of the Holy Spirit, be with you all" ( II. Cor. 
xiii. 14), and ask yourselves whether there is not in 
this case also strong reason to infer the personality 
of the Spirit from the personality of the Lord Jesus 
Christ and of the Father? Recall, at the same time, 
the Apostle's account of the extraordinary gifts 
which were. bestowed on certain members of the 
early church, concluding with the words, " But all 
these worketh the one and self-same Spirit, distrib- 
uting to every one severally as he willeth " ( I. Cor. 
xii. 11), and his word of exhortation, " Grieve not the 
Holy Spirit of God, by whom ye were called unto the 
day of redemption." (Eph. iv. 30). In these expres- 
sions, feeling, willing and doing are ascribed to the 
Spirit as unequivocally as they are ever ascribed to 
the Father or to the Son. Recall, too, the language 
of Christ when he promised the Comforter to his 
disciples : " He will guide you into all the truth ; for 
he will not speak of (or from) himself, but whatso- 
ever he shall hear that will he speak ; and he will 



THE TRINITY. 375 

show you things to come. He will glorify me, for he 
will receive of mine and will show it unto you." 
(John xvi. 13, 14). Do not the words, "he will not 
speak from himself," imply that he could speak from 
himself ? Is it necessary to say that an influence or 
operation will not speak from itself? Or does an 
influence or mode of action "hear" and "receive"? 
It is enough to read the last discourse of Jesus before 
he was betrayed, in order to be convinced that the 
Holy Spirit is as truly personal as the Father or the 
Son. 

Thus the elements of the doctrine of the Trinity are 
found in the New Testament ; the unity of God, the 
deity of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy 
Spirit, and the personal distinction between these 
three. And these elements readily unite in the 
received doctrine of the Trinity, which is, that the 
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are one and the 
same in essence, but distinguishable in a personal 
respect. This doctrine, I repeat, is not to be fully 
comprehended by us in the present life. It may be 
a mystery forever. For who can find out the deep 
things of God? (Job xi. 17.) No one can tell just 
how far unity of spiritual essence modifies and 
reduces the distinction involved in separate person- 
alities as we know them. All we affirm is this : that, 
according to Scripture, the divine unity is essential, 
and the difference between the eternal Father, Son, 



376 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

and Spirit personal, or of a personal nature. There 
is a vast mystery here. But it is not the only mys- 
tery that confronts us. There is no power or object in 
nature that does not rest in mystery, in the very bosom 
and sea of impenetrable obscurity. Who of us ever 
expects to learn on the shores of time the secret of 
the union of body and soul, of matter and spirit, 
acting and reacting upon each other, and so related 
bjr vital forces as to be a single being, a complex 
unity, as proved by the witness of self-conscious- 
ness 1 Most truly did the Apostle say : " For now 
we know in part, and we prophesy in part." 

But if we cannot comprehend the Trinity, why is 
anything said of it in the Bible? Would not the 
Scriptures have been more useful, because less 
obscure and perplexing, if they had contained no 
references to this mysterious truth ? We think not. 
Be the subject what it may, our knowledge of 
it is only partial; yet this partial knowledge is 
found to produce wonder, curiosity, desire, effort and 
progress ; yea, partial knowledge has often proved 
sufficient to smother vanity, beget reverence, warn 
of danger, and point out the way of life. Men knew 
how to use the compass, and, by its direction, how to 
cross the pathless deep in safety, long before they 
had any conception (if they have this now) of the 
power which held it with unseen hand, and made its 
trembling point a steady guide in cloud and storm. 
Men have known by the Word of God of a future 



THE TRINITY. 377 

life and a heavenly state, and have been animated to 
holy action by that knowledge, though quite unable 
to imagine the peculiarities of that life, and always 
baffled in their attempts to comprehend its glory. 
In like manner our knowledge of the Trinity, though 
partial, is sufficient to awaken awe, reverence, grati- 
tude and praise' in our hearts. It is all we need for 
religious direction and improvement. It is all we 
need to prevent us from relapsing into the coldness 
of deism or the distraction of polytheism. If the 
unity of the Godhead were not plainly taught, we 
should be liable, in the interest of clear thought, to 
regard the Father and the Son and the Spirit as three 
separate beings, like ourselves. If the deity of the 
Son and the Spirit were not plainly taught, we should 
be liable, under the influence of gratitude, to pay 
religious homage to our Saviour and our Sanctifier, 
even though they were not known to be truly divine. 
And if the personal distinction between the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit were not plainly taught, 
we should be in danger of rejecting the whole doc- 
trine of grace through atonement, and of going back 
to Judaism or over to Islamism, where legal right- 
eousness and despair are the sole alternatives. 

In two particulars, especially, may a reverent belief 
of the Trinity prove helpful to our religious life. In 
the first place, it may help us to see how God can 
be forever both self-sufficient and benevolent. By 
saying that God is self-sufficient, we mean to say that 



378 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

his being and blessedness are complete in them- 
selves, and therefore independent of any other 
being; and by saying that he is benevolent, we mean 
to say that he is love, that good will to others is 
natural to him. For when we read, " Every one that 
loveth is born of God, for God is love" (I. John iv* 
8), we feel that an affection really akin to Christian 
love, though infinite and eternal, must pervade and 
animate the life of the Godhead. And this -is actually 
conceivable, if we can say with the Apostle John,. 
" In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God." (John i. 1.) For 
the term with denotes fellowship, intimate commun- 
ion ; in this case, the fellowship of the divine Word 
with the divine Father. And it is easy to see that 
if there are different selves in the infinite Being, — 
however interpenetrant, transparent and perfectly 
known to one another they may be, — there must be 
mutual and perfect love ; for in every one of them 
must be constantly revealed, in personal form and 
beauty, the infinite virtues of their common nature. 
But, with any other view, we must believe, either 
that love is not an affection eternally active in God, 
or that he has had from eternity created objects on 
which to bestow his affection. By the former sup- 
position, the innermost and highest activity of the 
Godhead is temporal instead of eternal, and mutable 
instead of permanent ; and by the latter, the highest 
affection and blessedness of Jehovah depend upon 



THE TRINITY. 379 

the existence of created objects. But such a depend- 
ence of God upon creation is inconsistent with any 
proper idea of his self-sufficiency or perfection. I 
am, therefore, convinced that the doctrine of the 
Trinity is very helpful to us in forming a conception 
of God as both self-sufficing and loving. 

In the second place, this doctrine is a help to us in 
thinking of the Atonement. As a matter of history, 
we know that a rejection of the doctrine of the 
Trinity has almost always led to a rejection of the 
Atonement, while a cordial belief in the Trinity has 
been almost always accompanied with a belief in the 
Atonement. From this fact alone it would be safe to 
conclude that the two doctrines belong to the same 
system of truth. But this is not all that should be 
said. The Scriptures link them together in many 
places, and the method of interpretation which finds 
or fails to find one of them will find or fail to find the 
other. He to whom the Scriptures represent Jesus 
Christ as the Son of God— strictly divine and strictly 
human — will see in him a fit Mediator between God 
and men, and will receive the testimony of the Apos- 
tles to his atoning death. The mystery of a triune 
God accepted, a hundred passages of the Xew 
Testament, otherwise obscure, are made plain. " God 
so loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth in him might not 
perish, but have everlasting life." (John iii. 16.) 
" Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin 



380 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

of the world." (John i. 23.) "If any man sin, we 
have an advocate with the Father, Jesns Christ, the 
righteous ; and he is the propitiation for our sins ; 
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world." 
{I. John ii. 1, 2.) " For he made him to be sin for us 
who knew no sin, that we might be made the right- 
eousness of God in him." (II. Cor. v. 21.) "If we 
walk in the light as he is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus 
Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." (I.John 
i. 7.) " Wherefore he is able to save to the uttermost 
those that come unto God by him, seeing that he ever 
liveth to make intercession for them." ( Heb. vii. 25.) 
" Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, 
and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and 
glory, and blessing." ( Eev. v. 12.) 

Though my principal object in this essay has been 
to set forth, as clearly as possible, what seems 
to me to be the plain teaching of the Scriptures 
concerning a triune God, I am fully aware of the 
objections which are sometimes made to it, and 
might attempt, if it was necessary, to point out their 
inconclusiveness. But I will only remark : 1. That 
the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, as believed by 
evangelical Christians, is not self -contradictory. This 
will be evident, if you recall the fact that it does not 
affirm God to be in all respects one, and in all respects 
three, but' in a certain respect one and in another 
respect three. To illustrate my thought : there is no 



THE TRINITY. 381 

contradiction in saying that every man is three in 
essence, and one in person or consciousness. His 
being may comprise three distinct elements — a 
material body, a principle of life which pervades and 
animates that body, and a spirit which is united with 
both, but higher than either, rational, immortal, and 
fitted to "glorify God and enjoy him forever. I do 
not say that man has this triple nature ; I only say 
that there is no contradiction in supposing that he 
has it. So, on the other hand, there is no contradic- 
tion in supposing that the personality of God is 
triple, and his essence single. In either case, our 
only duty is to ask for the evidence and follow where 
it leads. In the one case, as well as in the other, we 
are brought face to face with a mystery which no 
man ever yet comprehended or explained. Let us 
not stumble at mysteries. The universe is full of 
them, and from youth to age we are encompassed by 
them as by an atmosphere. Let us not imagine that 
we can comprehend the Almighty, " He is higher 
than heaven, what canst thou know ? " My brethren, 
this is not a theme for philosophy, but for revelation. 
On this subject, above most others, we need to be 
as little children, accepting the facts as they are 
declared to us by "holy men who spake as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost." 

2. That the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, as 
understood by evangelical Christians, is not incon- 
sistent with some kind of subordination on the part of 



382 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the Son to the Father. We may be unable to point 
out the kind or degree of that subordination, but two 
remarks will show the direction in which it is possible 
to look for light. First. The second person of the 
Godhead is generally set before us by the sacred 
writers in his state of incarnation or humiliation. 
Both prophecy and history are chiefly occupied with 
him as the Mediator, and in this office he took upon 
himself the form, place and work of a servant of 
God, though he was Head over all things to the 
church. A certain subordination to the Father is 
therefore involved in his mediatorial work. But the 
relation of sonship and official subordination among 
men is consistent with that of equality in every 
natural and moral excellence ; may we not believe that 
it is equally so in the Godhead, whose personal distinc- 
tions are rooted in a common nature ? Second. To 
say that the distinction between the Father, the Son 
and the Holy Spirit is of a personal nature, is to 
prepare the way for us to believe that some personal 
quality of the eternal Word rendered it divinely 
suitable that he should be the revealer of God and 
the Redeemer of mankind, and that some personal 
quality of the Holy Spirit rendered it divinely suit- 
able that he should be the Sanctifier of men. Beyond 
this we need not attempt to go. We may be certain 
that there is an eternal fitness or decorum in all the 
acts of the triune God, but it is too much for us to 
expect to see and comprehend it in the present life. 



THE TRINITY. 383 

3. That iii prayer we should think of the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit as truly divine. We 
need not hesitate to address either of them in praise 
or petition. We need not, and we should not, fear 
to sing, "Come Holy Spirit, heavenly Dove." Though 
this is prayer and praise to the Spirit, the author of 
the new life is certainly God, since "every one that 
loveth is born of God" (I.John iv. 17), and those 
who "believe in the name" of Christ "have been 
born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor 
of the will of man, but of God" (John i. 13); that is 
to say, of God the Spirit; for "that which is born of 
the Spirit is spirit," and " the wind bloweth where it 
listeth,and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst 
not tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth, so 
is (it with) every one that is born of the Spirit." 
(John iii. 8.) We need not hesitate to offer praise or 
petition to Christ; for that is what the first Christians 
did, when they called on the name of the Lord; that 
is what Stephen did, when he said, " Lord Jesus, 
receive my spirit" (Acts vii. 59), and that is what the 
hosts of heaven were seen and heard doing by the 
Apostle John when banished to the isle of Patmos. 
And, finally, we need not puzzle ourselves with any 
attempt to hold in our minds the unity and triperson- 
ality of God at the same time. It is enough for us to 
come to God as sinners saved by grace, recognizing 
the work of Christ in our behalf, and ready to ascribe 



384 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the glory of our salvation to the infinite God. It 
is enough if we honor God in the unseen Father, 
behold him in the face of Jesus Christ, and gratefully 
welcome his presence in the working of the Holy 
Spirit. 




FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH, BALTIMORE, MD. 

KEY, J. W. M. WILLIAMS, DC, PASTOK FOB THIBTY YEABS. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 



BY REV. W. T. BRANTLY, D. D., BALTIMORE, MD. 



1. Tim. 3 : 16. God was manifest in the flesh. 

As to some facts respecting Jesus Christ, people 
of all parties and shades of opinion concur : — that 
he lived on earth at the period mentioned by the 
evangelists, that lie was a man of upright life, that 
he delivered sundry discourses, some of which are 
extant in our day, that he was the founder of a re- 
ligion which now numbers its adherents by millions ; 
and that he was put to death by Pontius Pilate, at 
the instigation of the Jewish Rulers. Whether he 
wrought the miracles ascribed to him, indeed whether 
he performed any miracles at all, whether he rose 
from the dead after his crucifixion, whether he was a 
teacher sent from God, — these and other inquiries 
involving superhuman intervention have been con- 
stantly agitated ; and different conclusions have been 
reached. This should not be surprising. For even 
among those who were brought into personal con- 
tact with him, who listened to his discourses, saw his 
miracles and observed his daily life, very diverse 
opinions prevailed respecting him. " Whom do men 
say that I am V 9 he asked his disciples on one occa- 

25 385 



386 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sion. "Some say John the Baptist; some Elias, 
others Jeremias or one of the prophets," was the 
reply. They might have added, some call you " a 
gluttonous man, a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans 
and sinners ; others say you have a devil and are 
mad ; others still, that you are in league with Beelze- 
bub and through your connection with the King of 
devils you are able to cast out inferior demons." 
The addition would have been true, for the sacred 
historians tell us that these opinions were expressed 
at different times in regard to his character. 

As clashing views were held in reference to the 
person of Christ prior to the completion of his early 
work and his ascension to heaven, it might be sup- 
posed that after he had left the world great diver- 
sity of opinions would continue to prevail respecting 
himself and the work he had performed. Such 
accordingly we find to be the case. He had scarcely 
disappeared from the earth before controversies 
sprang up respecting his character and his teachings. 
In our day it is generally the divinity of Jesus which 
is denied. His true humanity is now universally 
conceded. But in the first century, we find a con- 
siderable number of persons, known as Docetae, 
who asserted that Christ was a human being only in 
appearance. They taught that the being who so- 
journed among men, who ate and drank, and slept 
and wept, and experienced pleasure and pain, and 
finally was crucified, was only the phantom of a man. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 387 

Absurd as such an opinion appears to us, it would 
seem that the Apostle John regarded it as sufficiently 
serious to demand a refutation. The existence of 
this heresy explains the apparent repetition and tau- 
tology with which he emphasizes the humanity of 
our Lord when he speaks of " what he has heard, 
what he has seen with his eyes, what he has looked 
upon, what his hands have handled of the Word of 
life.*' 

Three hundred years later comes Arius denying 
the proper divinity of Christ. In his view, Jesus 
was superior to man, above angels, more exalted in 
rank and dignity than any intelligence in heaven, but 
nevertheless a creature — there having been a time 
when he did not exist. This doctrine for a time en- 
listed many adherents. Indeed for several centuries 
all the leading nations of Europe appear to have 
been largely under its influence. Coming down to 
more recent periods we reach the days of Faustus 
Socinus, who in the fifteenth century declared that 
no religious doctrine should be received which could 
not be explained by rational methods, and as he 
could not understand how Christ the Son could be 
equal with God the Father, he rejected the doctrine 
of three persons in the Godhead. He believed 
that Christ was a good man, that his teaching was 
invested with divine authority, and that lie suffered 
death as a martyr to the truth of his teachings. So- 
cinus died in 1G04. But his views are still held by 



388 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

many persons in our own country and in Europe. 
Unitarians (though we do not admit their exclusive 
right to the appellation) is the name by which they 
elect to be called. But their views are essentially 
the same as those of Lelius and Faustus SoeinUs, 
who uttered them in the latter part of the fifteenth 
century. 

But during all the years in which these discordant 
opinions have prevailed, respecting the character of 
our Lord, there have always been those who have 
been in full agreement with Simon Barjona, when 
he said, " Thou art the Christ, the son of the living 
God." And were the Saviour now to ask, as he did 
at the coast of Cesarea Philippi, Whom do men say 
that I am \ — whilst the answer might be, Some say 
that thou art a human being and no more, it would 
also be, Millions believe in thee as the being " who 
was in the form of God, and thought it no robbery 
to be equal with God." They believe that thou wast 
God manifest in the flesh; and they are looking for 
salvation through thy name because they believe 
that thou art " able to save to the uttermost, all that 
come to God through thee." 

But why do we hold these views of Jesus Christ ? 
Those who believe him to be God should be ready 
to give a reason for the faith that is in them. For 
whilst it is true that if he be divine, and we refuse 
him the homage to which he is entitled, we are 
guilty of a robbery which imperils our salvation, it 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 389 

is also true that if lie be only a creature, we are ob- 
noxious to the charge of idolatry if we render him 
the homage due to God only. 

When we claim Deity for Jesus Christ, we must 
rely on divine revelation to substantiate the claim. 
We have no other source of proof. Some persons 
have said that natural religion suggests the necessity 
for a mediator between God and man. Granted the 
necessity, reason teaches further : it has been said 
that he should possess a dual nature ; that is, he 
must be God and man at the same time. But we 
need better evidence than natural religion can sup- 
ply, in support of a truth so momentous. As res- 
pects reason, it is enough for us to know that there 
is nothing contrary to her dictates in the declara- 
tion that there may be God the Father and God the 
Son also. For though she may not comprehend how 
this can be — since " great is the mystery of Godli- 
ness " — she must admit that it is more reasonable to 
believe what Revelation teaches to be true, than 
to trust her own uncertain light. It is not con- 
tended that the Scriptures teach with irresistible 
clearness, (to every class of inquirers), the divinity 
of Jesus. They do not, indeed, present any impor- 
tant doctrine so strongly as to defy resistance. The 
Scriptures — any of them — may be wrested. Our 
conduct in the pursuit and reception of truth, it 
has been well said, "is a part of our probation." 
Whilst the meek and honest inquirer may be able to 



390 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

discover the truth, the self-sufficient seeker, filled 
with prepossessions for which he is mainly seeking 
confirmation from the Scriptures, will be left to 
wander in ignorance and error. If we appeal to 
the sacred oracles, with teachable and devout minds 
in quest of the truth on this vital question, I think 
we shall find the following propositions to be true : 

I. The Scriptures declare that Jesus Christ claimed 
for himself a divine nature. It is natural to suppose 
that if Jesus had been truly God, he would have as- 
serted this prerogative for himself, whenever it was 
proper to set forth his divinity. Had he made no 
such claim on any occasion, though the evidence for 
his Deity from other sources would still be con- 
clusive, objectors would be ready to say that a supe- 
riority should not be awarded to Christ, which, by 
his silence, he virtually disclaimed. But the words 
of our Lord, on such occasions, as well as the con- 
struction placed on his language by those best 
qualified to judge, constrain us to believe that he 
declared his own true divinity. 

1. See what occurred after the healing of the im- 
potent man at the pool of Bethesda. The miracle 
was performed on the Sabbath day. The enemies 
of our Lord, always in quest of some vulnerable 
point at which they might strike the object of their 
hate, assail him as a profaner of the Sabbath. By 
his violation of the law he is guilty of death, and 
they determined to take his life. Aware of their 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 391 

designs, Jesus excused himself, saying " My Father, 
worketh hitherto and I work.' 7 But this language, 
we are told, only awakened their fiercest displeasure. 
They sought the more to kill him, because he had 
not only dishonored the Sabbath, but said also that 
God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 
Should it be said that the Jews misapprehended the 
Saviour when they charged him with claiming equal- 
ity with God, it may be replied that our Lord would 
not have permitted such a construction of his answer 
to pass in silence, had it been incorrect. His non- 
repudiation, his acceptance of their interpretation, 
attests its correctness ; and in his case it is equiva- 
lent to the assertion of the claim for himself. The 
truth is, his language can have no other meaning; 
and it is plain, in our view, that he intended it to 
convey just the meaning which they accepted. It is 
as if he had said, " My Father worketh hitherto on 
the Sabbath day in his Providence; he heals the 
sick on this day; he makes his sun to rise and set; 
he sends the rain on this day ; he makes the grass 
to grow and the flowers to bloom on this day ; and I, 
who am his Son, work also in the same manner, and 
with the same authority, being Lord of the Sabbath 
as he is." Thus the language involves equality with 
the Father, and if equal to him, he must be Divine. 
Accepting the character ascribed to him by his 
enemies, our Lord proceeds to assert his equality in 
an extended discourse. He tells them that "as the 



392 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, 
even so the Son quickeneth whom he will." Surely 
he who can call back to life, from the repositories of 
the dead, any person whom he wills thus to summon, 
may "without robbery think himself equal with God." 
Being thus equal, he declares that the Father hath 
commanded that all men should honor the Son, even 
as they honor the Father. Is it the will of the 
Father that all men should believe in him as God % 
Then it is his will that they reverence the Son like- 
wise. Is it the will of the Father that all men should 
worship him % Then it is his will that they worship 
the Son also. Is it the will of the Father that all 
men should obey him % Then it is his will that they 
obey the Son likewise. Such is the union between 
them that no man can truly honor the Son, without 
at the same time honoring the Father. The more 
we exalt Jesus, the more do we honor him who says 
of his Son, " This is my beloved Son, hear him." This 
is the teaching of our Lord respecting himself. It 
is apparent that throughout the discourse he is 
vindicating himself from the charge of arrogant 
blasphemies, and asserting his Divine nature. The 
language fairly and obviously understood, represents 
him as claiming true Deity. 

2. A similar claim is made in that striking declar- 
ation, " I and my Father are one." I am aware that 
Socinians teach that in this Scripture our Lord is 
setting forth that between himself and Father there 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 393 

is a unity of sentiment and action. They deny that 
it teaches any essential unity of nature. But if the 
Socinians are right in their interpretation of the 
expression, would the Jews, on hearing* it, immediate- 
ly have taken up stones to stone him? They surely 
understood him to affirm that he was one with God. 
For when he interrogated them as to the reason of 
the assault, — inquiring for which of the good works 
he had shown them their anger was excited, — they 
promptly replied, "For a good work we stone thee 
not, but for blasphemy, and because that thou, being a 
man, makest thyself God." low, if the declaration of 
our Lord had been misapprehended by his hearers, 
he would not have permitted them to be- misled on 
a point so important. Common honesty, to say 
nothing of true benevolence, would have quickly 
corrected the mistake. But so far from disclaiming 
the construction placed on his words, he accepted 
their interpretation of his meaning, and then, as on 
a previous occasion, he continued his discourse, ex- ' 
hibiting at length the intimate relation between the 
Father and himself. 

3. In the memorable prayer offered on the eve of 
his crucifixion, our Lord claims divinity for himself, 
when, addressing the Father, he says, "And now, O 
Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the 
glory which I had with thee before the world was." 
What is the glory to which reference is here made ? 
It can be nothing less than the homage which is paid 



394 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

to Divine beings. God was the object of angelic 
worship long before the foundations of the earth, 
were laid. This it seems was shared by the Son 
before he became " God manifest in the flesh ;" and 
can we suppose that God, who " never gives his glory 
to another," would have been glorified with any one 
who did not, like himself, possess a divine nature, 
who was not God equal to himself? The prayer 
manifestly implies the claim of Divinity on the part 
of Christ. 

And so, when Philip asked that he might see the 
Father, the reply from Jesus implies a like claim. 
11 Show us the Father and it sufficeth us." Have I 
been so long time with you and yet hast thou not 
known me, Philip ? After all that you have heard 
from me, after having learned from me that I and my 
Father are one, are you still in doubt as to who I am ? 
Let me tell you again, Whoever has seen me has 
seen all that it is possible for mortal man to see of 
the Father. 

Such was the claim of Jesus. That he was a good 
man none nave denied who believe in his existence 
at all. The Docetse who ignored his person, and the 
Arians who called him a preexistent creature, and 
the Socinians who deny his divinity, all admit that 
he was a good man. And if this be his character 
then he will certainly speak the truth ; and we must 
receive his testimony respecting his own Deity as 
absolutely true. 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 395 

II. Whilst Jesus Christ asserted his own proper 
Divinity, he sustained his assertion by performing 
works which could only be wrought by the power of 
God. It might be said that the mere claim of any 
one to a character proves nothing. An impostor may 
claim to be king of the realm. Even a good man, 
through the imperfections of his judgment, may 
claim for himself prerogatives to which he has no 
just title. It is admitted that one claiming a divine 
nature should be prepared to furnish the world with 
sufficient reasons for such a claim. If Jesus, like 
Mohammed, had produced no miracles in attestation 
of his high claims, we should be as unwilling to be- 
lieve in his Deity as to recognize the assumptions of 
the great Arabian impostor to be the prophet of God. 

But his Deity was demonstrated by an impressive 
exhibition of the most unquestionable miracles. 
When the disciples exclaimed, on the Sea of Tiberias, 
M What manner of man is this ?" they felt most pro- 
foundly that the Being who could tranquilize the 
angry elements with a word, was something more 
than man. He who could take a few small loaves 
and fishes, which a lad had brought with him, proba- 
bly a lunch for his own use, and so multiply them as 
to satisfy the appetites of ten thousand people, (for 
if we include the women and the children, there 
were probably so many), and then gather up a larger 
amount of fragments than the original supply, 
showed himself equal to a work which is one of the 



396 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

most indisputable proofs of divine power — we mean 
creation. The young man who rose from the bier on 
which the attendants were bearing him to the tomb, 
and Lazarus, who returned to life after decomposi- 
tion had proceeded to such an extent as to be offen- 
sive, proclaim a present Deity as manifestly as did 
the water at the marriage of Cana in Gallilee, which 
at its Lord's bidding, "blushed into wine." 

I know it may be said that this argument for the 
Divinity of Jesus proves too much, since it would 
prove Moses, who wrought stupendous miracles in 
Egypt; and Elijah, at whose word the widow's son 
came back to life, and whose meal and oil were mul- 
tiplied ; and Peter and Paul who healed the sick and 
raised the dead, to have been divine also. Not so. 
These men never wrought miracles as Jesus did. 
They acted with a delegated authority which they 
never failed to recognize. Moses and others of the 
Old Testament saints worked miracles only as they 
were acting under Divine command. When Paul 
requires the spirit of divination to come out of the 
damsel, he asserts his order "in the name of Jesus 
Christ," thus attesting his own weakness, and the 
power of the Lord Jesus. "Eneas," says Peter, 
" Jesus Christ maketh thee whole." Here Peter in 
like manner attests at once the Divinity of Jesus 
and his own subordination. But Jesus acted in his 
own name and on his own authority. He had but to 
say, " I will, be thou clean," and immediately the 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 397 

cleansing followed. With authority and power he 
commanded the unclean spirits and they obeyed him. 
The seventy came back to him saying, " Lord, even 
the devils are subject to us through thy name." Well 
then has it been said that "although miracles may 
be performed by mere men, that is, through their 
instrumentality, and so cannot by themselves be 
proofs of the Deity of those who, in this instru- 
mental sense, performed them ; yet as the miracles 
of Christ were performed in his own name, by his 
undisputed word, according to his will and for 
his glory, they plainly prove him to be Divine." 

III. The Deity of Christ is further manifest in 
the declarations made of the fact expressly, or by 
fair implication, by God the Father. If God should 
send his Son into the world, it is quite reasonable to 
suppose (if his Son were a divine being) that the 
attention of men would in some way be drawn to the 
fact. This is just what we find to be true. At the 
commencement or his ministry, we hear the Father 
introducing him to the muititude, assembled at his 
bap' ism. with the announcement, "This is my beloved 
Son in whom I am well pleased." It is true that 
good men are often cailed sons of God in the Scrip- 
tures ; but it is always with such qualifications, or 
under such circumstances as to indicate the limited 
sense in which he intended the expression to be un- 
derstood. But when, on the banks of the Jordan, 
we hear the voice of the Father miraculously pro- 



398 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

claiming the august character of the candidate who 
had just received baptism at the hands of John, and 
mark the spirit descending in the form of a dove, 
such facts indicate unmistakably that the object 
of such honor could be none other than the equal 
Son — even " God manifest in the flesh." And as at 
the beginning, so as he was entering on the last 
scenes of his ministerial life, the voice of the Father 
is heard in the Holy Mount reaffirming the utterance 
at Jordan, saying, " This is my beloved Son, hear ye 
him." Is it possible, if the Son had not been Divine, 
he could have been the recipient of such renewed 
commendation of the Father, after he had asserted 
his equality with God, had repeatedly allowed Divine 
homage to be paid him, and had, in fact, declared 
that he and his Father were one ? 

But we have something stronger than implication 
on this important point. The Father bears witness 
to the Divinity of the Son, when he commands both 
angels and men to worship him. Speaking of Jesus 
in his letter to the Philippians, the Apostle tells us 
" Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and 
given him a name which is above every name ;" that 
at the name of Jesus " every knee should bow, of 
things in heaven and things in earth, and things 
under the earth ; and that every tongue should con- 
fess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God 
the Father." Now says our Lord, "Thou shalt wor- 
ship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 399 

serve." Is not then the fact that God commands 
rational beings on earth and in heaven — beings 
everywhere — to worship him, a testimony of God the 
Father to the Divinity of the Son % In like manner 
when the Apostle, in the first chapter of the Epistle 
to the Hebrews, citing the language of the Psalmist 
in the forty-fifth Psalm, "Thy throne O God is for- 
ever and ever," as the very language addressed 
by God the Father to God the Son, what room can 
there be to question the Father's recognition of the 
equality of the Son? Watts' theology is at once 
Scriptural and comforting in the familiar verse — 

" So strange, so boundless was the love 
That pitied dying men, 
The Father sent his equal Son 
To give them life again." 

IY. The Deity of Christ is directly affirmed in 
repeated instances by the sacred writers. The tes- 
timony of these writers to the Deity of Christ de- 
rives all its value from the fact that they were 
divinely directed in their testimony. If you sup- 
pose that they were ordinary witnesses, liable to the 
frailties and errors of fallible men, their testimony 
upon the point would be of little value. But guided 
as they were by an unerring hand, we may depend 
on what they have said. Do they distinctly declare 
the Deity of the blessed Lord? Let the prophet 
Isaiah answer, " For unto us a child is born, unto us 
a Son is given, and the government shall be upon 



400 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

his shoulders: and his name shall be called Won- 
derful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting- 
Father, the Prince of Peace." Hear the beloved 
disciple, " In the beginning was the Word, and the 
Word was with God and the Word was God." Who 
was this Word? The same that afterwards was 
"made flesh and dwelt among us." "Of whom," 
says the Apostle Paul, "as concerning the flesh, 
Christ came, who is over all, God blessed forever." 
Can language be more explicit than this in regard to 
the Divinity of Jesus ? " He was in the form of 
God," says the same Apostle, "and thought it no 
robbery to be equal with God." And if he, wise 
and good as he was, thought it no robbery, there 
was none, and he was equal with God. A^ain says 
the same Apostle, " In him dwelleth all the fullness 
of the Godhead bodily." And yet again, " The first 
man is of the earth, earthy ; the second man is the 
Lord from heaven." "Hereby," says the inspired 
John, " perceive we the love of God, because he 
laid down his life for us "-—thus fulfilling his own 
words — " I lay down my life for the sheep." But we 
need not multiply this testimony. It is more than 
complete; it is abundant. The sacred writers, it 
would seem, seek to establish this vital truth by 
irresistible proof. 

V. The worship paid to Jesus Christ, on earth 
and in heaven is another evidence of his Deity. We 
know that Christ was often addressed as Lord when 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 401 

he was on earth. We know that he was often wor- 
shipped and that prayers were constantly offered to 
him. Here comes the leper worshipping him and 
saying, " Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean." 
Peter says to him " Depart from me O Lord, for I 
am a sinful man." Thomas cries out " My Lord and 
my God." The dying thief prays " Lord remember 
me when thou comest into thy kingdom." After his 
resurrection, the disciples come calling him Lord, 
saying, " Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the 
kingdom to Israel V 9 After his ascension, these same 
disciples "worshipped him and returned to Jeru- 
salem." 

Now, what would you think of any one, not divine, 
who would allow himself, through the ignorance of 
others, to be worshipped as God? You remember 
on one occasion, Cornelius fell down at the feet of 
Peter and worshipped him, but Peter disclaimed 
the homage. He would not for a moment suffer 
Cornelius to remain under the delusion that he was 
entitled to any such honor. " Stand up, I myself 
also am a man." So when John fell down to worship 
one improperly he was immediately corrected. " See 
thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, worship God." 
Can any one suppose for a moment that the Lord 
Jesus would have received worship which was not 
his due? 

Perhaps some one may say just here, the fact that 
these men worshipped Jesus proves nothing, since 



402 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

it shows rather their opinion of his person than his 
true character. This would be true, but for what we 
have just seen — that our Lord allowed himself to be 
so worshipped. But more than this, he not only re- 
ceived this worship, but actually commended it. u Ye 
call me Master and Lord, and ye say well, for so I 
am." " I am your Master "; it is as if he had said " I 
have a right to lay my commands upon you. More 
than that, I am your Lord. I give you rest, I for- 
give your sins, and when you die I am he that will 
raise you up at the last day." Then, too, the Scrip- 
tures teach us that he who permitted himself to be 
worshipped on earth is receiving homage in heaven. 
The dying Stephen called upon him after he had 
ascended on high, crying, " Lord Jesus receive my 
spirit." "I beheld," says John in Eevelation, "and 
heard the voice of many angels round about the 
throne, and the living creatures and the elders, and 
the number of them was ten thousand times ten 
thousand and thousands of thousands, saying with a 
loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to re- 
ceive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, 
and honor and glory and blessing. And every crea- 
ture which is in heaven and on earth and under the 
earth and such as are in the sea, and all that are in 
them, heard I saying, Blessing and honor and glory 
and power be to him that sitteth upon the throne 
and unto the Lamb forever and ever. And the four 
living creatures said Amen." 



THE DIVINITY OF CHRIST. 403 

May we not call him God who accepted worship 
from men on earth, and who now receives the hom- 
age of saints and angels in heaven ? 

Need I multiply proofs from the sacred oracles in 
support of this cardinal article of our Christianity? 
It would be easy to do it. I could show you that 
attributes properly predicable of Deity only, are 
constantly affirmed of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. I 
could show you that works which God alone could 
perforin were wrought by Jesus Christ. It could be 
shown that the names applied to God are also applied 
to Jesus — that the Deity of Christ is recognized in 
the prayers which were constantly addressed to him 
by Paul and the other Apostles — that when Christ 
commanded his Apostles to baptize in the name of 
the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, his equality with 
the other persons of the Godhead was asserted — 
that the benediction pronounced on Christian con- 
gregations is an act of worship rendered to Christ 
in connection with the Father and the Holy Spirit. 
But enough. 

The discussion of the subject is closed. We have 
proved, we think, most conclusively, from the only 
authorized source, that the man who was born in 
Bethlehem of Judea, was indeed, " God manifest in 
the flesh 7 ' — "very God of very God." Who can 
think even superficially that the God of Glory should 
thus humble himself for sinners ; should for the 
guilty and lost consent not only to this act of humil- 
iation, but to a whole life of suffering, shame and 



404; BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sorrow, and finally to an ignominious death upon the 
cross, without having his soul stirred to its lowest 
depths ? What shall we say to such love % What 
words of gratitude can express the obligation we 
owe to such a benefactor % What devotion can ad- 
equately characterize the obedience which is his 
due % We can only summon our poor souls to stand 
still, and praise and wonder and adore. We say 
with the Apostle, "Thanks be unto God for his un- 
speakable gift." But how cold and unworthy is that 
word " thanks, 7 ' viewed in connection with the gift % 
Still let us rejoice that, poor as it is, we can speak 
it. Let us love to speak it every day. Let the ear- 
liest consciousness of every morning hour find our 
hearts swelling with grateful emotions to the God- 
Saviour. Let the last thoughts of the evening hour 
be of Him who, God though he was, gave himself 
for us. Let our whole lives attest by appropriate 
deeds, the sincerity of our thanks. And let us look 
forward to the skies as the place in which we may 
repeat and continue evermore the praises begun on 
earth. For, after we have dwelt for ages on the 
theme, we cannot express all that ransomed sinners 
owe to such a Divine Deliverer. 

" O for this love, let rocks and hills 
Their lasting silence break, 
And all harmonious human tongues, 
The Saviour's praises speak. 

Angels! assist our mighty joys, 

Strike all your harps of gold — 
But when you raise your highest notes 

His love can ne'er he told." 



THE ATONEMENT. 



BY REV. G. W. SAMSON, D. D., NEW YORK. 



44 And not only so, but we joy in God through our Lord Jesus 
Christ, by whom we have received the atonement."— Rom. 
v. 11. 

For two reasons, this text is often conscientiously 
rejected as a statement presenting the gospel doc- 
trine which the word "Atonement," as now used by 
theologians, implies. 

In the first place, the word here translated "atone- 
ment" in the original Greek means "reconciliation." 
In every case but this the Greek noun is rendered 
"reconciliation," and the corresponding verb, as in 
the verse preceding our text, is always translated 
•"reconciled." The word "reconciliation" does not 
present the full idea of what is now included in the 
doctrine characterized as the Atonement. For this 
Teason the text seems to be objectionable as setting 
forth the doctrine to be considered. 

In the second place, the old English meaning of 
the word used by our translators has changed since 
their day. Its old meaning was the same as that now 
implied in the word reconciliation. The old Saxon 
word "atone," as its composition implies, means 

405 



406 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

"at-one." The verb is causative in signification, 
meaning "to set at-one." So, too, the noun "atone- 
ment" meant, when our translation was made, "the 
setting at-one," or " that which sets at-one." Now, 
this changed meaning of the word — as those accus- 
tomed to encounter opponents to the gospel doctrine 
always observe — this changed meaning of the word 
atonement is so radically fixed in the mind of those 
trained to erroneous views of the Gospel doctrine, 
that it is impossible, humanly speaking, to make them 
see "the truth as it is in Jesus." For this reason, 
again, many evangelical Christians and Bible stu- 
dents have avoided the use of this passage as setting 
forth the Gospel doctrine. 

For two reasons, in the present survey, this text 
is chosen : first, because of the New Testament term 
itself; and second, because of the doctrine involved 
both in the word and in its connection. 

As to the word Atonement here employed, though 
but once found in the New Testament, it is often met 
in the Old Testament, in the version used for nearly 
three centuries by English readers. The people 
cling to the English translation ; they will quote it, 
and even when the translation can be shown by 
scholars to be in terms now obsolete or incorrect, 
common readers will be led by the version in their 
hands. Here, however, the translation is correct. 
It gives truly the meaning of the original. The 
change in the meaning of the word, moreover, is but 



THE ATONEMENT. 407 

partial. In the many eases in the Old Testament 
where the words "atone" and "atonement" are 
met it means all that is now involved in the term 
as used by evangelical theologians. Yet more, the 
English translators who had employed the word in 
the Old Testament in its comprehensive meaning, 
doubtless had reasons, in this single passage of the 
New Testament, to depart from their own ordinary 
Xew Testament translation, and to insert the word 
"atonement'' instead of "reconciliation." Such was 
the comprehensiveness which Paul in this connec- 
tion himself threw into the word, that fidelity to the 
inspired writer's thought demanded that here, and 
here alone, the comprehensive Old Testament word 
"atonement" should be introduced. And this fact 
suggests an added and controlling guide to the 
preacher, who should first find and then should thor- 
oughly unfold the truth, not of the word alone, but 
of the word in its connection with other words, by 
which the Divine Spirit presents connected truth. 

As to the doctrine, though not fully found in the 
word, it is found in the statement wherein Paul used 
the word. The word "atonement" here employed 
does mean, both in the inspired original and in the 
old English, "reconciliation." But the very idea of 
reconciliation implies former alienation, and some 
effective means by which that alienation is brought 
to an end. Reconciliation is but a result of some- 
thing beforehand accomplished ; it is an effect which 



408 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

must have an adequate cause. When Paul used the 
word here his mind was so full of thoughts of the 
cause which had brought about the reconciliation 
that he filled in all the other words of the text with 
the statement of that cause. The mind that persists 
in dwelling on one word used by Jesus or Paul, and 
neglecting its connection, may unwittingly belong to 
the class referred to by the great Apostle, " who 
handle the word of God deceitfully." If this sinking 
of the subject in thoughts of the word be sincere, it 
must spring from man's natural heart, like that of 
Nicodemus ; sincere indeed, but untaught by experi- 
ence what reconciliation to God is, and what it 
implies. 

Let us read again the statement here, in which 
there was such a fullness of associated truth that 
our English translators seemed compelled to drop 
the word " reconciliation " everywhere else employed 
and to insert the word "Atonement." It reads: 
"And not only so ; but we also joy in God, through 
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have received 
the Atonement." Packed with gospel hints as it is, 
linked also to a long preceding statement of truth, 
the text presents, and that in a manner most compre- 
hensive and effective, this theme : 

The Divine Atonement ; its nature, ground and efficacy, 
as taught hy the icord of God and oy human experience. 

A careful re-reading of the text leads us to notice 
these points of thought. There is an " atonement ' 



THE ATONEMENT. 409 

provided for man; therefore, we should seek to com- 
prehend its nature as a blessing needed by man. 
Again, this blessing is "received," not self-provided; 
and its author and giver should be held in mind. 
Yet again, it is " our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we 
have received the atonement," and as each of these 
three names — first, " the Lord," the Jehovah of the 
Old Testament, or God manifested ; second, " Jesus," 
or Saviour; and third, "Christ," the anointed, or 
officially appointed -as each of these words is meant 
to present its own distinct idea as to the Atonement 
and its provider, the ground of the Atonement is here 
set forth. Yet once again, as Paul says, u we have 
received from our Lord Jesus Christ the Atonement," 
and as therefore " ice joy in God," the inquiry must 
arise, for whom, and how far for each human being, 
is this provision made, or what is the efficacy of the 
Atonement ? 

We have, then, our theme in the text. The Atone- 
ment is certainly divine, not human, in its nature, in 
its ground, and in its application. And this over- 
ruling idea must be our guide as we seek in the word 
of God for that interpretation of the word which 
human experience compels us to accept; otherwise 
we cannot reach the truth. For, while the revealed 
statements of the Old and Xew Testament are our 
sole guide to religious truth, the inspired Scriptures 
teach us through human language; and human lan- 
guage is but the embodiment of ideas in the human 



410 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

mind before language was framed. We must, there- 
fore, first, carefully note at every point of our consid- 
eration the meaning of the words in the original 
Hebrew and Greek Scriptures which God himself 
chose in which the most clearly to present his 
truth to man. We must also, second, carefully con- 
sider the meaning of words in our English tongue, 
into which that original divine revelation is trans- 
lated; for if, as readers of the Word, we attach 
differing ideas to the meaning of the Word we read, 
that Word will no longer be to us a divine revelation. 

Most of all, if the word of God is the revelation of 
his own distinct idea of each truth belonging to our 
duty to him and to his redemption for us, no mind 
can hope to attain " the truth as it is in Jesus," 
except it be under the guiding and enlightening influ- 
ence of the Divine Spirit. As Christ taught, " Except 
a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of 
God," so Paul taught, " The natural man receiveth not 
the things of the Spirit." " God hath revealed them 
unto us by his Spirit." 

Guided, then, by human experience, with prayer 
that we may be enlightened by the Divine Spirit's 
influence, we are to consider — 

I. The nature of the Atonement, as consisting in its 
three provisions : Reconciliation, Propitiation, and 
Expiation) which secure Justification. 

As the word of God to man is in man's language^ 
already framed as the expression of human ideas, 



THE ATONEMENT. 411 

Divine Providence has ordered that the efforts of 
ambitious popular leaders to impose and impress 
their own conceptions upon other minds should the 
more clearly illustrate his truth. Tims the " opposi- 
tions of philosophy, falsely so-called," Paul declares, 
were made, at the Greek cities of Ephesus and 
Corinth, the occasion of a fuller consideration and 
presentation of the gospel truth. This has, in our 
day and land, been witnessed in the case of Dr. 
Bushnell of Hartford, Conn. Observing in his youth 
that "no doctrine of the Atonement" yet presented 
had " received the consent of the Christian world," 
he sought, in two discourses delivered in the year 
1848 — one at the Harvard and the other at the Yale 
Divinity School, — to show that the "Atonement" is 
a " reconciliation " of man to his Maker, such as an 
offending man makes to his fellow. After years of 
added study it was perceived by Dr. Bushnell that 
this view implied nothing on the part of the Divine 
Being; but that it was simply a change in man. He 
was now convinced that reason taught that some new 
affection must necessarily be awakened in the divine 
mind. Recalling, therefore, the closing half of his 
first volume, he added, as a second element of the 
Atonement, " propitiation of the Divine Being." This 
idea he found everywhere in the philosophic relig- 
ions of the world; as in India, Greece and Rome. 
This idea of "propitiation" he explained by Jona- 
than Edwards' statement that " God's love and pity 



412 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

fixed the idea of man's sin and its penalty in his mind 
as if he had been really they." Thus the Atonement 
to Dr. Bushnell was, first, "reconciliation" in man, 
and second, "propitiation" in God. But while he 
found, as he admits, in the Greek language, words 
implying " expiation " and " expiatory sacrifice," and 
while he also found that such sacrifices have, in 
all ages before Christ's day, both among nations 
the most cultured and the most rude, been always 
offered, failing to recognize that human reason, 
always and everywhere, has felt the need of " expia- 
tion," as well as of propitiation and reconciliation, he 
denied that the New Testament teaches that in 
Christ's Atonement an " expiatory sacrifice " is pro- 
vided. Contrary to Bushnell's forced conclusion, 
the Christian experience, as well as the honest intel- 
ligence of most readers of the New Testament, has 
recognized that the clearly -stated expiatory sacrifice 
of Christ is that which manifests to the intelligent 
universe God's love. This expiation is the essential 
provision of the Divine Atonement. The gospel 
doctrine of the Atonement, indeed, makes these 
three provisions, and in their inverse order, to enter 
into the nature of the Divine Atonement: There is, 
first, an "expiation," reconciling the universe to God's 
government ; there is, second, a " propitiation," rec- 
onciling in the divine character " righteousness and 
love ;" and there is, third, a " reconciliation " in man. 
removing the condemnation for past sin, and beget- 



THE ATONEMENT. 413 

ting a new life of love to God and his service. And 
all these secure man's "justification;" so that, 
though sinful, he is accounted to be righteous. 

Turning to the Hebrew of the Old Testament, we 
find that the word to " atone " is one from which our 
Saxon word " cover," both in form and meaning, is 
derived. This word is used about one hundred and 
forty times in the Old Testament ; and thus often used 
it presents the leading idea in the nature of the 
Atonement. That idea, end and result accomplished 
for believing men is to " cover" the sins of which 
the sinner has been guilty. It is the thought of 
David, when, after his great guilt was revealed to 
him in the virtual murder and adultery which brought 
the great stain and formed the great crime of his life,, 
he wrote the thirty-second and fifty-first Psalms; 
exclaiming, at the opening of the former, " Blessed 
is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose 
sin is covered." It was not enough for David that 
he was assured of "forgiveness;" he wished his sin 
" blotted out from the book of remembrance." Fur- 
ther than this, as the Apostle Paul, quoting in Eom. 
iv. 8 the added expression in Ps. xxxii. 2, plainly 
teaches, it is the demand of human conscience and 
of divine truth, that in order to be " covered " and 
"blotted from remembrance" sin should "not be 
Imputed " to the sinner ; that it should not be charged 
to his account. This, yet again, leads to a further 
demand that man, the sinner, should be actually 



414 BAPTIST DOCTEINES. 

justified from his transgression; the vital idea of the 
nature of the Atonement which runs through the 
whole history of religious experience as recorded in 
the Old and New Testament, and as witnessed in the 
history of Christian converts in every age and land. 
Job, the earliest patriarch whose experience is 
recorded, since his age indicates (xlii. 16) that he 
must have lived some generations before Abraham, 
is a striking example of this demand. Divine reve- 
lation had declared as to Noah, who lived some 
generations earlier than Job, these three facts: 
First, that he " found grace in the eyes of the Lord ; " 
second, that he was "a just man and perfect in his 
generation;" and third, that "he walked with God." 
The meaning of the word just here must, as Paul and 
Peter both teach, refer to his "justification by faith " 
from sin against God ( Gen. vi. 8, 9 ; Heb. xi. 7 ; II. 
Pet. v. 7). The full explanation of what is thus briefly 
stated as to Noah is found in Job. Job is repeatedly 
designated by the divine pen and voice as " a per- 
fect and upright man " ( i. 1-8 ; ii. 3). Yet when his 
friends declare that he must have been "unjust," even 
towards his fellow-men, Job, in defending himself 
from the charge, (ix. 2), asks: "But how should a 
man be just with God?" Irritated into murmuring 
utterances by the persistent charges of his friends, 
young Elihu perceived at the close of the discussion 
that Job, even as to his sin against God, " had just- 
ified himself rather than God" (xxxii. 2). In his 



THE ATONEMENT. 415 

reply the Divine Being declares that Job had exalted 
first his own "wisdom," (xxxviii. 2), and second his 
** purity " ( xl. 2, 8). Both these, when reproved by 
the Divine voice, Job humbly confesses (xlii. 4; 
xlii. 2-5). His sincere repentance and faith are 
accepted, and his justification is declared by God 
(xlii. G-8) ; and in this extended description the fullest 
as well as the earliest illustration of "justification by 
faith" seen in Christian experience is given for all 
time. Yet again in the brief record of Abraham 
Paul saw and repeatedly presented the same idea 
as fundamental in the nature of the Atonement, 
(Gen. xv. 6 ; Gal. iii. 6 ; Eom. iv. 3-22) ; while in all 
the redeemed from Abel to David, he declares that 
the same faith was illustrated (Heb. xi. 2 to xii. 3). 

The fullest and most enrapturing view of "justifi- 
cation " as the essential feature in the result of the 
Atonement is presented by the Apostle Paul in the 
Epistle to the Eomans. He first shows that all men 
are sinners; because, first, from nature, without rev- 
elation, they have "known" God, the reality and the 
penalty of sin, and the duty of repentance and faith 
in God; because, second, though knowing all this, 
the heathen had become vile in appetite and brutal 
in passion, the Jews had been insincere and hateful 
in spirit, while "all men had sinned," in that the 
most virtuous had " come short of the glory of God." 
Indeed, he declares that every human being, from 
the first of our race, had sinned so perfectly " in the 



416 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

similitude of Adam's transgression " that all were as 
hopelessly lost as our first parents were. Hence the 
necessary provision for man's redemption was one 
by which (Ch. 3) "the righteousness of God in the 
remission of sins that are past " might be made 
clear ; so that all the universe might see that God 
"might be just and yet the justifier of him that 
believed in Jesus." , The special presentation of this 
accomplished result is found in the eighth chapter 
of this epistle. Having stated again (viii. 1), "there 
is now, therefore, no condemnation to them that are 
in Christ Jesus," the Apostle proceeds to explain 
how this fact can be true. Declaring that sinful man 
is " not willingly " —that is, not of his own choice — 
" subject to vanity," or to the weak, erring, sinful 
condition inseparable from his earthly and bodily 
life, but that he has thus been created " by reason 
of him who hath subjected him in hope" — that is, 
that Christ might show his glory and grace in 
redeeming him — the Apostle presents the following 
questions and responses : " Who shall lay anything 
to the charge of God's elect f It is God that justifieih ! 
Who is he that condemneth V Can any of the angels, 
he seems to imply, beings that never sinned, and 
who might regard it unjust that a sinful being should 
be treated as if sinless — can any angel condemn 
man? Have they, he seems further to imply, suf- 
fered at all by man's sin? And then, suspending, 
apparently, his reply till these thoughts may have 



THE ATONEMENT. 417 

been pondered, lie responds to his own expressed 
question, " Who is he that condemneth ? " " It is 
Christ, that died" for man, if any one, that has any 
right to condemn ! Assuredly man must himself be 
satisfied— indeed all heaven must confess, after such 
a presentation, that " God may be just and yet justify 
the ungodly who believe in Jesus;" and who, with 
Paul, can say, " He gave himself for me." 

Through all the history of Christian experience 
this view, substantially, has been conceived when 
peace and rest in Jesus have first been felt. In 
every age and land, from the day of Paul's conver- 
sion, Christian converts have conceived that Christ 
is both their substitute and surety ; that he assumes 
as his own the responsibility of their past sin and of 
their future righteousness. It was this that the 
converted Brahmin had conceived, whose experi- 
ence Dr. Duff, of the Scotch Presbyterian Mission 
at Calcutta, described. Dissatisfied with the religion 
of the Vedas, he had studied next the Buddhist, and 
then the Mohammedan faith. Still at unrest, he 
heard of the Christian faith, and came to Dr. Duff to 
be instructed in it. A month's reading of the Scrip- 
tures and of Scotch theology brought no satisfying 
light. One da}*, however,' in poring over Paul's 
Epistle to the Romans, a new idea — that which we 
have traced —broke upon his mind. Perfectly enrap- 
tured, he went to his instructor to state his new 
conception. "And why," asked Dr. Duff, u were you 



418 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

not satisfied with the Koran, which on every page 
declares that God is merciful and can forgive sin?" 
" Oh," exclaimed the converted Brahmin," " I was 
not satisfied to be forgiven through the mercy of 
God. I wanted to see how God could be just and 
yet justify the ungodly." 

While sin is thus expiated, and the believing sinner 
is justified, human nature recognizes that the Divine 
Being must be " propitiated. 7 ' It was this that Dr. 
Bushnell, by years of thoughtful study — proceeding 
backward from the first perceived element of the 
Atonement, the sinner's " reconciliation " — traced in 
man's religious history. It was ever and fearfully 
prominent in the history of the Greeks, in whose 
language the Old Testament was studied at Christ's 
day, and in whose tongue, also, the New Testament 
truth could be most fully presented. When, in the 
Iliad of Homer, the Grecian heroes embarking for 
the conquest of Troy are driven back by a storm, 
they are told that one of their chief deities must be 
" propitiated " by the sacrifice of the most lovely 
daughter of their commanding general. How fear- 
fully expressive, how forcibly instructive, the history 
of such sacrifices ! Let no one dare to treat with 
scorn the sacrifice of Christ Jesus on the cross ; for 
in that act of scorn this agonizing demand of human 
reason and conscience will also be treated with 
contempt ! Man needs a " propitiation" with God ; 
and this, the Old and Xew Testament fully teach, is 
provided by Christ Jesus our Lord. 



THE ATONEMENT. 419 

It was the deep conviction that " propitiation" was 
needed that caused '' the horror of great darkness " 
to come over Abraham when, immediately after the 
declaration that "his faith was counted to him for 
righteousness," like many a Christian convert in 
later times, he showed a still distrustful craving for 
some visible proof of God's acceptance of him, and 
asked, "Lord God, whereby shall I know that I shall 
inherit " thy promise ? (Compare Gen. xv. 6, 8, 12.) 
It was the agony of anxiety that God should be pro- 
pitiated which made Moses " quake with great fear" 
when, having irreverently dashed the two tables 
written with God's finger, as he saw the people of 
Israel besotted in their drunken and idolatrous 
dance, and then, going back to meet the offended 
and aggrieved God whose servants he and they 
ought to have been, he thus addressed the people : 
"Ye have sinned a great sin. But now I will go 
up unto the Lord. Peradventure I shall make an 
atonement for your sin." This agony of yearning 
for " propitiation " with God breaks forth again 
immediately on his reaching the presence of the 
Almighty, as he utters the prayer, " O, this people 
have sinned a great sin! Yet now, if thou wilt for- 
give their sin — and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of 
thy book which thou hast written." (Exod. xxxii. 
31, 32.) The same need prompts the first exclama- 
ion of David's penitential prayer ( Ps. li. 1 ) : " Have 
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving 
kindness." It is this very word " propitious " that 



420 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

is on the heart and tongue of the publican in his 
prayer, " God be merciful," or as the original Greek 
word means, "God be propitious to me a sinner;'' 
and it is in answer to this prayer for " propitiation " 
that Jesus declares that the pleading penitent " went 
down to his house justified." Everywhere in the 
New Testament as well as in the Old, in the words 
of the Apostles as well as of Jesus, "propitiation" 
is the second need of man the sinner, and the second 
provision of the Gospel. As Paul, in the words nigh 
our text (iii. 25) says of Jesus, "whom God hath set 
forth to be a propitiation," so John, in the closing 
record of the inspired New Testament (I. John, ii. 2) r 
declares "He is the propitiation for our sins, and 
not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole 
world." 

The fact that "reconciliation" with God is the 
third element required in the "Atonement" is too 
plain to need extended confirmation from the Scrip- 
tures. As we have noticed, it is the essential idea in 
the old English Avord " atonement " employed in our 
text, which is a literal translation of the Greek term 
here used by the Apostle Paul. It is the final result, 
and hence, so far as human duty is concerned, the 
essential element for man's practical regard in the 
Atonement. Man's personal effort of mind and heart 
is concerned when Paul, on behalf of all succeeding 
Christian heralds, writes (II. Cor. v. 18-21): "All 
things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself 
by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry 



THE ATONEMENT. 421 

of reconciliation, to-wit, that God was in Christ, 
reconciling the world unto himself." But, to give 
emphasis to the fact that it is only so far as human 
duty is concerned that "reconciliation" is made 
prominent in the divine statement as to the Atone- 
ment, the great Apostle immediately adds, as the 
means by which this reconciliation of the world to 
himself is secured, " Not imputing their trespasses 
unto them." Setting forth then the agency by which 
this means is provided, Paul adds : " For he hath 
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we 
might be made the righteousness of God in him." It 
is the " expiation" securing " propitiation," and this 
permitting "justification," that makes "reconcilia- 
tion" possible. 

Hence our text is worthy the prominence given it, 
since while the "reconciliation" of man to God is 
the special element here implied in the word "atone- 
ment," that very "reconciliation" is "received" from 
God, through the " propitiation " which reconciles in 
him his righteousness and love, and by means of the 
" expiation " which reconciles the intelligent universe 
to the divine character and government. 

We are thus led on to consider — 

II. — The ground of the Divine Atonement: The 
sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ, offered for man's 
redemption. 

As the worldly-wise statements of ambitious men, 
step by step recognizing the full nature of the Atone- 
ment, serve to make clear its complete idea, so the 



422 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sincere effort of men of earnest mind to approximate, 
though they cannot attain to, "the truth as it is in 
Jesus,' 7 most forcibly presents the only ground of 
Divine Atonement ; which the inspired Scriptures 
reveal, and which can alone meet all the demands of 
human reason. Here the mature and condensed 
statement of Channing is most instructive. In his 
special discourse on " Unitarian Christianity," speak- 
ing for his New England associates, Channing says : 
"A difference of opinion exists among us as to * * 
the precise influence of Christ's death on our for- 
giveness. Many suppose that the event contributes 
to our pardon, as it was a principal means of con- 
firming his religion and of giving it a power over the 
mind ; in other words, that it procures forgiveness 
by leading to that repentance and virtue which is the 
great and only condition on which forgiveness is 
bestowed. Many of us are dissatisfied with this 
explanation; and I think that the Scriptures ascribe 
the remission of sins to Christ's death with an 
emphasis so peculiar that we ought to consider this 
event as having a special influence in removing pun- 
ishment, though the Scriptures may not reveal the 
way in which it contributed to this event." 

This peculiarly frank statement, indicating a mind 
seeking light from revelation as well as from reason^ 
indicates the way in which the human mind has in all 
ages been led to recognize the revealed ground of 
Divine Atonement. Channing's words, both in the 



THE ATONEMENT. 423 

cited quotations and in their connection in his dis- 
course, indicate a reference to "theories" of the 
Atonement which have prevailed. As each of these 
theories presents a " part," and a part only, of the 
truth revealed in God's "word" and in his "work," 
the human mind which studies that word, the effort 
of the Christian inquirer who is seeking "the truth," 
may be aided by recalling' those theories. 

The theories of the Atonement which have been 
extensively accepted are substantially five. They 
are each made to grow out of the view each theorist 
has maintained as to the fundamental element in 
human " sin," for which Atonement is made, and as 
to the essential nature of "Christ," who by his death 
atones for sin. The elements of sin are three — 
error, alienation, and unsubmission ; and the first 
three different theories of the Atonement turn on 
the question, Which of these three elements of sin 
is the source of the other two? The natures attrib- 
uted to Christ are two — the human and the divine ; 
and the last two theories differ from the first three 
in making the divine nature of Jesus, rather than 
the human, give fundamental efficacy to the Atone- 
ment. And while in all ages, both before and after 
Christ's coming, and among nations with and without 
revelation, these differences of view have existed, 
yet the theories, as fully elaborated, have been 
ascribed to Christian writers of comparatively mod- 
ern times. 



424 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

The first, or lowest in its estimate of sin and of 
the Saviour, is the " Example Theory," attributed to 
Socinus. According to this theory, sin is funda- 
mentally error — " amartia " in the Greek original ; 
lack of understanding, as was seen in Eve, who 
was " deceived in the transgression." The Atone- 
ment for sin, accordingly, is the example of Christ, 
who, as a man, wins back the sinner from his error. 
The second is the "Moral Influence Theory," now 
ascribed to Bushnell. According to this theory, sin 
is alienation — "echthra" in the Greek— or " enmity 
against God ; " illustrated in Adam, who " was not 
deceived," yet transgressed God's command. The 
Atonement for sin, consequently, is Christ's suffer- 
ing morally, and only as a man, the innocent for the 
guilty ; a suffering like that experienced by earthly 
parents and friends, and also by sinless angels, who 
grieve at the alienation of the sinful from the God 
whom they love ; a suffering whose moral influence 
tends to reconcile those alienated from God, and 
to subdue their enmity. The third is the " Gov- 
ernmental Theory," illustrated by Grotius, the 
founder of the modern science of International 
Law. According to this theory, sin is u lawless- 
ness," in the Greek, "anornia," translated in the 
New Testament " transgression of law ; " an element 
seen in the "pride" or "rebellion" which was "the 
condemnation of the devil." The Atonement, there- 
fore, is Christ's sacrifice, as a human representative 



THE ATONEMENT. 425 

sent by God, of every earthly comfort; suffering 
every loss, and the most painful of deaths, as a sub- 
stitute for man, condemned as a rebel ; for, as all 
mankind, because of their relation to Adam, as heirs 
of a feudal lord, are subject to loss of property, of 
station, and of character, because of the guilt of an 
ancestor who has become a traitor, so Christ, by 
■assuming as his own that sacrifice, makes the trait- 
or's guilt to be counterbalanced by his merit. The 
fourth theory, that called "Material Substitution," 
fully wrought out by Anselm, of the Eoman Church, 
and partially accepted by Calvin, among the early 
Eeformers, regards the suffering of Christ, as man 
and God united, to be an equivalent in intensity and 
merit for the suffering which all mankind who are 
redeemed would have endured had they not been 
rescued from eternal misery. The fifth theory, styled 
that of "Moral Substitution," makes the moral 
weight of Christ's suffering, as divine and human, to 
be an equivalent whose moral influence reconciles 
angels and men to the government of God, and 
begets love supreme to his perfect character. 

Without doubt there is valuable truth in each of 
these several theories; but each presents only a part, 
though the latter a most comprehensive combining 
of several parts, of the entire truth demanded by 
reason and fully presented in revelation. Sin is 
error, and Christ is an example for man. Sin is 
alienation or u enmity," and the moral influence of a 



±26 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

sinless being must have an effect in winning back 
those "alienated from God." Sin is the spirit of 
"lawlessness;" as Paul illustrates in his own case, 
when his heart rose in rebellion against God simply 
because the "law was good," and he therefore rebelled 
against it; while, moreover, Christ is the divine rep- 
resentative, taking man's place, as if the guilt of 
man's sin were his own. Still more true is it that 
Christ, as divine and human, suffered as no one, nor 
indeed all men combined, can suffer; the physical 
agony and the mental anguish he endured being as 
much greater than man's as his nature is greater. 
Yet more, and almost climactic in its comprehensive 
truth, is the revealed fact that in the sacrifice of 
Christ as God and man united, there was a moral 
impression on all intelligent creatures of God, human 
and angelic, which will at last reconcile them all to 
the character and government of God. And yet the 
essential fact revealed in the Old and New Testament 
as to the Eedeemer and this redemption may be over- 
looked in the study of all, even of the last of these 
theories. 

The opening revelation by Moses teaches that 
before Adam was formed, his Creator, "The Lord 
God," or "Jehovah God," the manifested Divine 
Being, had himself assumed human nature, so that 
he himself was prepared to appear in human form, 
" walking in the garden," and addressing the first 
formed pair with human voice. It is in accordance 



THE ATONEMENT. 427 

with this stated fact that Paul says (quoting Ps. xl. 
6 in Heb. x. 5) that before man's creation, Christ 
exclaimed, "A body hast thou prepared me"; that 
in that body, "a little lower than the angels," he was 
introduced into the world, and the angels were called 
on to worship him (Deut. xxxii. 43 and Heb. i. 6, also 
Ps. viii. 4, and Heb. ii. 7, 9); that "all things were 
made by him and for him" (Col. i. 10); and that all 
mankind, from Abel, who believed in him, already at 
man's first sin revealed as the "seed of the woman," 
" the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world," 
should be redeemed by this one sacrifice. John, the 
last of the New Testament writers, is yet more 
explicit than Paul in these statements; that it was 
the "Word made flesh, by whom all things and beings 
were created" (Johni. 2); that he is "the propitia- 
tion for the sins of the whole world," Abel himself 
being specially cited as " saved by faith" (I. John ii. 
2; iii. 8-12); and yet more, that in the purpose of 
God and in the eflicacy of his atonement, Christ was 
"the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." 
The history of man's creation, of his first sin, and of 
the Bedeemer's interposition in Eden, illustrated by 
the statements of Christ and his Apostles, is a key 
to the essential truth as to the ground of the Atone- 
ment, presented in the epistle from which our text is 
taken. All men from Adam, the Apostle teaches, 
have sinned under such circumstances that the 
statement is universally true, they "have sinned 



428 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

after the similitude of Adam's transgression." All 
men, therefore, are redeemed, if saved, as was Adam ; 
by the second Adam, the Divine Being who had 
before forming the first man assumed his nature ; 
assumed the responsibility of his being placed under 
the circumstances which led to his fall; assumed the 
creation of man with the purpose of himself taking 
man's nature, suffering in it all that man in any age 
or combination of trial could suffer ; and assumed 
all this in order that he might not only appear to be, 
but might actually u be just, and the justifier of him 
that believes on him." David had the conception 
that sin might really "not be imputed" to the sinful; 
while Paul teaches here that the sinner's penalty is 
assumed by Christ, while " righteousness," the right- 
eousness of Christ, "is imputed to him who believes 
in him." The ground of the Atonement is, that the 
Creator assumes for his creature man, whenever any 
human being accepts his sacrifice as made personally 
for him — that believing man's Creator assumes the 
responsibility of his sinful condition, and of his 
"weak" spiritual nature while in probation upon 
earth. This great fact as to the Divine Atonement 
is on the very face of the ^N~ew Testament, and even 
of the Old, from the time of man's creation in Eden 
till John's Gospel was penned. The history of 
human thought and experience makes this universal 
Scripture teaching both clear and entrancing. 
In every age, among people without revelation, 



THE ATONEMENT. 429 

just so far as men have formed a low estimate of the 
"exceeding sinfulness of sin," just so far, also, they 
have blindly trusted to personal rites and offerings 
of a material nature, or to personal efforts at purity 
of life for the expiation of sin, for propitiation with 
God and for reconciliation. So, too, in every age 
men who have had the Old and Kew Testament 
revelation, and yet have cherished the spirit of self- 
justification — such men have had low estimates of 
the demerit of sin, and, of course, of the Eedeemer 
Jesus and of his work for man. This may be traced 
in the early days of the Eoman Christian emperors, 
when to profess Christianity secured worldly prefer- 
ment; as the discussions from Arius to Pelagius 
indicate. It is made impressive in the seventh, 
century; when the corruptions brought in by worldly 
men led to the fall of the Eoman Empire and the rise 
of Mohammed, who, while admitting all the miracu- 
lous facts of Christ's earthly life, insisted that he was 
not crucified, but that Simon, the Cyrenian, a guilty 
criminal who bore his cross, and on whom God 
stamped the image of Jesus, was crucified in his 
stead. The reason which Mohammed alleged for 
this denial of Christ's death, was the special proof 
both of its reality and of its efficacy. He denied 
Christ's death because it would have been unjust in 
God to allow a sinless being like Christ to suffer the 
penalty of sin ; giving thus the strongest confirmation 
that if Christ died it was not for himself, but for sinful 



430 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

men. This same perversion appears again at the 
Eeformation, when, as Dorner and Eitschl, the great 
modern historians of the Eeformation, both avow, 
the great framers of theories of the Atonement did 
not return to the Scriptures alone as their guide; 
but, as their name implied, they but re-formed old 
opinions. For, seeking to gather a church, not " of 
holy persons, 7 ' but made up " of communities bound 
together by Christian ordinances,'" they sacrificed 
Christian truth to state policy. Hence arose at the 
very juncture of the Eeformation the partial theories 
of the Atonement we have traced. 

On the other hand, this fact can be traced most 
palpably in all human history. Whenever any human 
mind has been spiritually enlightened to see his sin 
as it is pictured in David's experience and wrought 
into his Psalms, and in Paul's world-wide observation 
as wrought into the Epistle to the Eomans, — then 
the ground of Christ's Atonement has appeared to 
be this: it is Christ's assumption, at once as our 
Creator and Eedeemer, of the responsibility of the 
sin of all those who accept his interposition for them. 
This can be traced in all the admired writers of every 
age and branch of the Christian Church ; and it is in 
their profound reasonings but the echo of truth 
common to all the inspired writers. Moreover, 
whenever any profoundly thoughtful believer in 
other religions than the Christian faith has come to 
feel the yearning to be "justified by the righteous- 



THE ATONEMENT. 431 

ness," rather than to be forgiven in the mercy of 
God, then the fact everywhere revealed in the 
Scriptures, that his Creator stands pledged as 
"surety" to secure by his own assumption this per- 
fect redemption for those who accept it from him — 
this fact meets all the demands of human reason for 
an Atonement Divine in its provision and Divine in 
its ground, because it fully harmonizes God's right- 
eousness and love. 

But this expression, an Atonement for " those who 
accept it," thus far necessarily employed, demands 
itself an explanation, and leads to the consideration 
of— 

III. — The Efficacy of the Divine Atonement, as Expi- 
ation for redeemed men, Propitiation for unredeemed 
men, and Reconciliation for all beings. 

Thus far, it has been necessary, in considering the 
nature and ground of the Divine Atonement, to allude 
to its efficacy for men who accept it. The farther 
question arises whether it has an efficacy beyond 
that realized in those who are redeemed. The con- 
sideration of this requires careful notice of what the 
Scriptures state to be its efficacy, first for men who 
are redeemed, second for angels that have not sinned, 
and third for men and angels who, having sinned, 
continue in their sinfulness. This specially involves 
the harmony of the Divine Sovereignty and of man's 
free agency in those redeemed and those unredeemed 
by Christ's Atonement. 



432 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

As to the efficacy of the Atonement for the 
redeemed, no statement framed by grateful and 
enthusiastic Christian hearts can surpass or even 
equal the reality. The redeemed by Christ are on 
earth, as John exultantly says (I. John iii. 2), "already 
sons of God," while " it does not yet appear what we 
shall be" since "when he," our Redeemer, "shall 
appear, we shall be like him; " while, moreover, they 
who " receive him " receive also from him " power to* 
become the sons of God." Paul, too, exhausts the 
vocabulary of the most expressive terms, when he 
says that the redeemed are " sons of God," not by 
nature, but by the higher and most appreciative 
relationship, that of "adoption;" that this sonship 
by adoption makes us " heirs of God," in the double 
sense of being "glorified" in personal character, and 
of being blessed with every outward relationship 
that can exalt. Most of all, Paul teaches that we 
were " predestinated " by God " to be conformed to 
the image of his Son," who is exalted "above the 
angels," and that thus we are "joint heirs with Christ 
to an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away." Yet more, in view partly of this 
future exaltation, but more in view of the natural 
interest which a redeemed spirit awakens, and of the 
personal joy which a saving change begets, Christ 
and his inspired Apostles enumerate as present and 
earthly blessings bestowed on the redeemed." " They 
already rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of 



THE ATONEMENT. 433 

glory." They " have a hundred-fold " of every earthly 
comfort. " There is joy in the presence of the angels 
of God over one sinner that repents more than over 
ninety and nine just beings that need no repentance." 
In the songs, too, of the upper world there is a strain, 
" Thou hast redeemed us unto God," which only the 
saints of earth can utter; while the angelic choir 
listens and waits to join in the chorus, " Worthy is 
the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, 
and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and 
blessing." 

They are right, then, who place stress on these 
declarations ; for they are statements of fact. They 
certainly err who, from these and such like state- 
ments, infer that Christ's Atonement has efficacy only 
for the redeemed. These are strong statements, 
indeed : " Christ loved the Church, and gave himself 
for it " ( Eph. v. 25) ; " He loved me, and gave himself 
for me" (Gal. ii. 20); but they are not statements 
which exclude an efficacy that reaches another end in 
another class. There are other declarations that 
assert a positive efficacy, though not a redeeming 
power, over others than the redeemed. Such are 
the declarations of Christ and of Paul and of John 
to this effect. Christ declares (Matt. xx. 28), "The 
Son of Man came . . to give his life a ransom for 
many," which the Apostle Paul makes synonymous 
with the declaration (I. Tim. ii. 6), " He gave himself 
a ransom for all." Again Paul (Heb. ii. 9), "We see 

2S 



434 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Jesus, made a little lower than the angels, crowned 
With glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, 
should taste death for every man." Yet again, John 
(I. John ii. 2), "He is the propitiation for our sins, 
and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the 
whole world;" in which expression the word rendered 
*' world" is, in the Greek, "kosmos," or universe. It 
is impossible to suppose that Paul and John used, 
without special design, these expressions of an influ- 
ence exerted by Christ's Atonement which reaches 
beyond the redeemed. They are right, indeed, who 
seek, in the connection of the statements just quoted 
for proofs that the redemption secured by the Atone- 
ment is limited to those who accept it; and yet the 
form of language chosen by the inspired writers is 
not by this qualification of the context made of no 
account in the writer's design. 

Perhaps a harmonizing of important distinctions 
made in our study of the nature and ground of the 
Atonement may here prove an aid to reach the 
divine thought. In its nature, the Divine Atonement 
includes three elements, reconciliation, propitiation 
and expiation, their combined result securing justifi- 
cation. Of course no " expiation n is required for 
angels who have not sinned; and no expiation is 
made for those who have sinned but are not 
redeemed. There may, however, be " reconciliation " 
secured for sinless angels, and "propitiation" for 
unredeemed men. Yet, again : the ground of the 



THE ATONEMENT. 435 

Atonement has appeared from our survey to be 
Tatker moral than material; not so much the fact 
that Christ's bodily agony and mental anguish was 
a measured equivalent for that which would have 
been endured by the precise numbers who are to 
be redeemed if they had been unredeemed. But 
Christ's sacrifice is a moral equivalent, in its united 
human and divine impression made on the universe 
of intelligent beings, which infinitely surpasses the 
impression which would have been made had all 
mankind been left to bear themselves the penalty of 
their own sin. Not detracting, therefore, in the least 
from the strongest possible statement as to the 
divine purpose and the divine accomplishment in the 
efficacy of Christ's Atonement for the redeemed, we 
should be prepared to receive the divine declaration 
as to another influence of the Atonement on beings 
not redeemed. 

The case of infants, next after mature believers, 
demands consideration. That they are born with a 
sinful nature, Greeks, like Socrates, and Eomans, like 
Cicero, without revelation, declare ; while Yirgil pic- 
tures that they need expiation, though among the 
nearest to the heavenly entrance. David, in the 
strongest terms, declares their depravity (Ps. li. 5); 
and yet his confidence in their redemption is as clear 
(II. Sam. xii. 23). Christ, in the last of his life, three 
times piatt. xviii. 3-10 ; xix. 13-15 ; xxi. 15, 16 ) teaches 
that children, even infants, are to be saved ; yet he 



436 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

accords with their parents that "prayer" for the 
Divine " blessing " is essential if they " enter the 
kingdom of heaven " ( Matt. xix. 13, 15 ; Mark x. 16). 
So John records (I. John ii. 12): "I write unto you r 
little children, because your sins are forgiven you 
for his name's sake." It is natural to suppose that, 
as the Divine Spirit acts directly on the mature mind 
in regeneration, so it may act on the undeveloped 
infant spirit. It is rational to conclude that, as those 
who can exercise personal faith are called to that 
exercise ; while at the same time the faith of the 
weakest intellect is as acceptable as that of the pro- 
foundest thinker (I. Gor. i. 27), so "oat of the mouth 
of babes and sucklings" God may "perfect praise." 
The Atonement of Christ to such may not bring con- 
scious "reconciliation;" while it does provide for 
their " expiation " and " propitiation." 

The interest of angels, both in man who is redeemed 
and the divine purpose accomplished by it, is the 
theme of frequent statement by Christ and his Apos- 
tles. Christ says that "there is joy in the presence 
of the angels over one sinner that repents;" his 
words justifying, doubtless, Watts' interpretation in 
his hymn, " Who can describe the joy ? " etc., that it 
is the Divine Being, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, 
who manifests the greatness of joy, while, however, 
"saints and angels join" in its expression, Christ 
again says of his " little ones " (Matt, xviii. 10), " Their 
angels do always behold the face of my Father which 



THE ATONEMENT. 437 

is in heaven ; " while Paul (Heb. i. 14) asks, as if it 
were a truth universally taught, "Are they not all 
ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them 
who shall be heirs of salvation ? " in which statement 
every word is full of meaning. We should be pre- 
pared, then, for Peter's declaration (I. Pet. i. 10-12) 
as to the interest of angels in the purpose as well as 
in the icorJc of human redemption, when, after dwell- 
ing on the intense interest of prophets who could 
not comprehend that of which they wrote, "the 
sufferings of Christ and the glory that should 
follow," the Apostle adds, " which things the angels 
desire to look into." We may, yet more, be prepared 
for Paul's repeated statement as to the direct effect 
of the Atonement on angels. Thus, to the Ephesians 
(i. 9-12) he declares that it entered into the " pur- 
pose " of God, that " he might gather together in 
one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven 
and which are in earth, even in him," and then, lest 
this statement might be supposed to refer only to 
redeemed saints then in heaven, he adds : " In whom, 
also, we have obtained an inheritance, being predes- 
tinated according to the purpose of him who worketh 
all things after the counsel of his own will, that we 
should be to the praise of his glory who first trusted 
in Christ." To make it clear that angels are 
affected by the Atonement, the Apostle adds, a little 
farther on in his epistle (Eph. iii. 10, 11), that the 
divine "intent" in the Atonement had respect to the 



438 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

impression it would make on sinless angels. His 
words are, " To the intent that now unto the principal- 
ities and powers in heavenly places might be known 
by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according 
to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ 
Jesus our Lord." To make yet more manifest his 
specific meaning, in an epistle written at the same 
time with that first quoted, after repeating the trans- 
cendent and special blessings of the Atonement 
conferred on the redeemed (Col. i. 9-14), having 
declared that Christ was " the image of the invisible 
God," and yet " the first-born of every creature," or 
of the animate and human creation, that " all things 
were made by and for him," and that he is "the head 
of the body, the church," Paul adds this peculiar 
statement: that by Christ's Atonement the angels 
were "reconciled." His words are (i. 19, 20): "For 
it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness 
dwell ; and, having made peace through the blood of 
his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; 
by him, I say, whether they be things in earth or 
things in heaven." We may readily conceive, as we 
bring together all of Paul's revealed statements, that 
angels, who saw some of their own number rebel 
against God and become hopelessly irreconcilable, 
and who then saw mankind sin and only partially 
recovered — the loftiest angels, seeing but part of 
God's way, could not "reconcile" to their finite 
judgment God's character and acts ; while, neverthe- 



THE ATONEMENT. 439 

less, they had such faith in him that they remained 
sinless. But the " sufferings of Christ" and the 
gradually manifested " glory that should follow" was 
to "reconcile" them in their virtuous longing for 
complete knowledge of God's purpose. Thus the 
Atonement had an efficacy — not that indeed of 
"expiation," or of "justification," but certainly that 
of " reconciliation," as Paul states, and perhaps of 
" propitiation," as John's language may intimate. 

But another class than pure angels look upon 
Christ's Atonement — hopelessly fallen angels and 
the unredeemed among men. It is intensely interest- 
ing, and it is also practically important, to consider 
what the Scriptures say as to the impression made 
by it on them. 

The relation of those who among men reject the 
Atonement provided in Christ is dwelt upon at large 
in the epistle from which our text is taken. Over his 
countrymen who "have not submitted themselves to 
the righteousness of Christ," Paul pours forth his 
anguish of heart in the opening of the ninth and 
tenth chapters. He justifies, however, their rejec- 
tion, while Gentiles were blessed with redemption, 
by this profound argument. When, before their 
birth, Jacob was chosen of God for superior mental, 
moral and material exaltation, a divine appointment 
everywhere seen among brothers in the same family, 
the inferior might murmur; but what rational man 
would not, even in his worldly mind, condemn that 



440 BAPTIST DOCTEINES. 

murmuring, and commend humble submission and 
faithful devotion in the lot appointed of God, who, 
like the potter, has "authority" as to the clay he 
moulds. But still more: When with a man like 
Pharaoh, hardened by his own cast of mind, and 
hardening himself even after his "wise men" and 
his "people" remonstrate, resisting the appeals of 
justice to the oppressed Israelites, and of God's 
Providence and Word, enjoining upon him his per- 
sonal duty — when, with such a "vessel of wrath 
fitted to destruction," God, like his suffering people, 
"endured with much long-suffering" — "What if," 
asks the Apostle, " What if the Divine Being, after 
long endurance, leaves to his fate that persistent 
reprobate ? " For, as the great Apostle in his high 
argument proves — an argument which, in his own 
day and in every age, has satisfied impartial reason — 
two ends were accomplished, which in no other way 
could have been realized : first, the glory of his grace 
in the redeemed, and second, of his justice on those 
who reject Christ's Atonement. And yet, think of 
it in whatever light we may, unreasonable as well as 
unreasoning men will retort, "Why, then, doth he 
yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?" 
Yes ; now, as in Paul's day, like vicious men con- 
demned by all others yet excusing themselves for 
brutalizing indulgence, men will not "justify God." 
But a time will come — is coming — when others 
than the redeemed will join in the admission and 



THE ATONEMENT. 441 

adoring confession of David and of Paul, " That thou 
niightest be justified in thy sayings, and niightest 
overcome when thou art judged" (Rom. iii. 4). 
There is coming (Rom. ii. 5) "a day of the revelation 
of the righteous judgment of God.' 7 That day is "the 
last day, 7 ' since not until all the efficacy of Christ's 
redemption on earth and in the universe has been 
realized, can the "revelation" be made clear. Then, 
whatever be now the judgment of unredeemed men 
and of fallen angels, then " every knee shall bow 
(Rom. xiv. 11) and every tongue shall confess." That 
confession will be that "Jesus Christ" is rightful 
"Lord;" that he will justly "confess before the 
angels" only those who "confess him before men," 
and that, therefore, he is " worthy to receive power 
and glory" eternal. So important is this final, trans- 
cendent efficacy of the Atonement that not only does 
Paul, as we have seen, make it his great argument in 
the latter half of this wondrous epistle, and also a 
point for allusion often in other writings, but John, 
in his final Revelation as to the future world and its 
events, twice alludes to it (Rev. xiii. 8, and xvii. 8) as 
specially illustrating the recognized wisdom and 
power, righteousness and love which at last all intel- 
ligent beings, though unredeemed, will behold in the 
Divine Atonement. John's revelation of that final 
confession is thus stated: "All that dwell upon the 
earth shall worship him, even they whose names are 
not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain 
before the foundation of the world." 



442 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

If such be the nature and the ground, and such r 
most of all, the efficacy of the Divine Atonement, 
who on earth should not strive to comprehend and 
appreciate it ? If " the angels desire to look into it," 
certainly the redeemed of earth should "search the 
Scriptures " to see u whether these things be so." If 
such be the present and future exaltation of a true 
Christian, "What manner of persons ought we to be 
in all holy conversation and godliness?" If, at the 
"last day," not only fallen angels, " greater than" 
men, will bow and confess that Jesus is "righteous" 
as well as self-sacrificing in all his sway — if at the 
" last day " all that dwell on the earth will " worship " 
Christ, even those " whose names will not then be 
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from 
the foundation of the world" — who that is now 
"neglecting" the "great salvation" should not heed 
the great Apostle's appeal in this epistle ? (Eom. x. 
1, 13): "Brethren, my heart's desire and my prayer 
to God for my kinsmen according to the flesh is, that 
they might be saved." "Whosoever shall call upon 
the name of the Lord shall be saved." 



THE PEKSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIEIT. 



BY REV. A. J. GORDON, D.D., BOSTON, MASS. 



And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another 
Comforter, that he may abide with you forever." — John xiv. 
16. 



We have in these words a comparison and a con- 
trast. The comparison is between Christ and the 
Holy Spirit. For the words "another Comforter 77 
carry the thought, that Jesus is one comforter, and 
the Spirit who should come is another. Thus, by a 
single word, our Lord puts the Holy Spirit on the 
same plane with himself. There is no comparison 
between a person and an influence. If I say, u I am 
a man and you are another," I mean, of course, that 
you are another man. Thus it seems to me, we have 
our Lord's estimate of the Spirit established in a 
single word. Mechanics have an instrument, you 
know, which they call a " spirit level,' 7 which being 
placed across two objects, indicates when they are 
upon exactly the same plane. Such is the word 
" another " as here employed. By it Christ fixes for- 
ever the divine level between himself and the Holy 
Ghost. And whatever claim of divinity and person- 
ality he made for himself as the advocate with God — 

443 



444 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

for that is what the word here translated" Comforter " 
means — he now makes for the Spirit who was to come, 
since he puts that Spirit upon the same level with 
himself by calling him " another advocate." 

And there is also a contrast between Christ and 
the Spirit. U I go away/ 3 the Lord had three times 
said in the previous part of his discourse. Of the 
Spirit he says, "that lie may abide with you forever. 17 
It is the contrast between Christ's brief visit to earth, 
and the Spirit's perpetual and abiding presence on 
earth. And this comparison and contrast suggest 
two thoughts — the personality and the perpetual 
presence of the Holy Spirit. 

I. It seems to me that the text teaches quite dis- 
tinctly the personality and divinity of the Holy Spirit. 
For the word comforter or advocate could hardly be 
applied to other than a person. An advocate is one 
who stands for another, as a lawyer for his client. " If 
any man sin," says John, " we have an advocate with 
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous." It is a word 
which strongly and especially carries in it the idea 
of personality, ^o concentration of spiritual influ- 
ences, no combination of divine impressions could 
ever be intense enough to constitute an advocate. 
The sun's rays condensed to a focus will kindle a fire, 
but they can not make a sun, since they are only an 
emanation of the sun. And no spiritual influences, 
however powerful, can make a spirit or constitute 
an advocate, pleading, speaking and standing for us 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 445 

before God. A person can produce influences, but 
no amount of influences can ever constitute a person. 

Indeed, the more we study the word paraclete or 
"advocate," the more fertile do we find it to be in 
suggestions in regard to the personality of the Holy 
Spirit. It is that which takes the place of Jesus in his 
separation from his Church. "If I depart I will send 
the Comforter unto you." Here the thought is clearly 
that of a substitute for Christ in his absence. And 
when he says that it is expedient for him to go away 
in order that this substitute may come, a most pow- 
erful impression is at once made upon the mind, of 
the greatness and dignity of a being that shall be 
deemed worthy to take the place in the world which 
is about to be made vacant by the Son of God. If 
the Lord himself is a person, surely his vicegerent 
must also be a person. 

But then we hear Christ, in the same discourse, 
identify himself with this person : " I will not leave 
you comfortless, I will come unto you." So closely 
and mysteriously related is the Lord to this coming 
advocate, that he thus speaks of him as another self. 
And if the Lord is divine, surely this advocate must 
be divine. And not only this. There is a constant 
identification of ministry and offices between Christ 
and the Spirit in convincing of sin, in revealing the 
truth, in intercession with God. As Christ testifies 
of the Father, so the Spirit testifies of Christ. Christ 
comes in the Father's name: the Spirit comes in 



446 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Christ's name. Christ makes known to men the 
things of the Father : the Spirit makes known the 
things of Christ. Christ reveals himself as one with 
the Father : and he reveals the Holy Spirit as one 
with himself. Christ is "an advocate with the Father ": 
the Holy Spirit is " another advocate." Thus, in all 
our Lord's predictions concerning the Spirit who 
should come, he seems to be not only installing a 
divine successor in his place, but to be bequeathing 
to that successor all the offices and dignities and 
attributes which he himself had claimed. And this 
testimony of Jesus to the Spirit is more decisive 
than any word of that Spirit himself could be. For 
did not Christ teach us that even a divine being is 
not to base his claims upon his own testimony? "If 
I bear witness of myself," said Jesus, " my witness 
is not true." And so he appealed constantly to the 
testimony of his Father. So does the Holy Ghost 
appeal to the testimony of Christ. From the silent 
heavens God speaks concerning Jesus : " This is my 
beloved Son; hear ye him." And just before Christ 
enters into those silent heavens that must contain 
Mm until the times of restitution of all things, he 
spoke concerning the Spirit : " Hoivbeit, ivhen he the 
Spirit of Truth shall come he will guide you into all 
truth." 

What a being that must be to whom the Lord 
committed the trust of leading his disciples into all 
truth after his own departure! The Spirit, who was 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 447 

to be a more advanced teacher than Christ, surely 
could not be a less exalted person ; the one who was 
to enlarge and intensify the work which Jesus had 
begun could not belong to a lower rank of being 
than Jesus. In God's school men do not graduate 
downward any more than in man's school. And if 
the Holy Spirit were anything less than a divine 
person, I cannot conceive of Christ's dismissing his 
disciples to his tuition with the saying, "I have 
taught much, but this instructor will teach you more. 
I have led you as far as is yet possible in your pres- 
ent weakness, but he shall lead you farther. I have 
guided you into some truth, but he will guide you 
into all truth." And this is what he says in the 
words, " I have yet many things to say unto you, but 
ye cannot hear them now. Howbeit, when he the 
Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all 
truth." 

Many regard the Holy Spirit as simply the moral 
influence of Jesus which remains in the world after 
his departure. But how feeble is the posthumous 
influence of even the greatest man compared with 
his personal presence! The echo can add no single 
syllable to the voice that creates it ; the influence 
can, by no possibility, be greater than the man who 
exerted it. But we hear Jesus saying to his disci- 
ples, "When I am gone and the Spirit is come, 
greater works than I have done shall ye do ; and 
further into the truth than I have brought you shall 



448 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ye be led." Can it be that this augmented power is 
but the momentum of his influence increasing after 
his departure % Can it be that this larger teaching 
is but the multiplying echo of his voice after he has 
ceased to speak on earth? 

Napoleon is said to have uttered this prediction 
before his death : " When I am gone, my spirit shall 
come back to France to throb with ceaseless life in 
new revolutions." His spirit did come back in the 
sense of his personal influence, and its inspiration 
was more or less felt in European politics in subse- 
quent years. But how very small the posthumous 
influence compared with the living man who shook 
all Europe by his giant tread. And how inevitably 
has that influence waned from year to year. But 
Christ said, " When I am gone, the Spirit of Truth 
shall come, whom I will send unto you." That Spirit 
came. The church became filled and energized with 
his presence, and instead of being feebler than before, 
now commences her mightiest conquests; now dim 
apprehensions of truth give way to clear and vivid 
knowledge ; doubts succumb to doctrine, and fears 
to faith. The disciples are utterly transformed* 
John, who in carnal blindness would call down fire 
from heaven on his enemies, now glows like a seraph 
with the fire of love, writing, " God is love, and he 
that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in 
him." And Peter, who before seemed so amazed and 
bewildered at every mention of his Master's death, 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 449 

now makes that strongest of all statements of the 
doctrine of atonement : " Who his own self bore our 
sins in his own body on the tree." When I read 
Christ's predictions in regard to the Spirit that 
should come, and when I read in the Acts of the 
Apostles what happened after he had come, the 
impression is inevitable in my mind that there is an 
invisible divine presence filling the church and 
making it no less than a second incarnation of God 
through the Spirit. Looking at Jesus Christ, Paul 
exclaims : " Great is the mystery of Godliness, God 
manifest in the flesh." And looking at Paul and his 
companions casting out devils, healing the sick, and 
preaching the Word, who has not exclaimed to him- 
self, " Great is the mystery of Christliness, Jesus 
manifested in the person of his disciples." "In 
whom ye also are builded together for a habitation 
of God through the Spirit." 

I have referred to the words "another advocate" 
as used in the text. Christ, in using this phrase, not 
only puts the Spirit on a level with himself, and in 
the place of himself, but makes him a co-partner 
with himself in the work of regeneration and salva- 
tion. As in a law partnership there is often a 
counsellor and an advocate — the one to advise in 
the office, the other to plead in court; so in the 
divine co-partnership between Christ and the Holy 
Spirit. The Spirit is the earthly advocate, counsel- 
ling in the heart of man. Christ is the heavenly 

29 



£50 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

: advocate, pleading in the court of heaven. There 
must be a good case on earth in order that there 
may be a successful issue in heaven. And so we are 
told of the indwelling Spirit that " he helpeth our 
infirmities since we know not what we should pray 
for as we ought, and niaketh intercession for the 
saints according to the tvill of God." Then the prayer 
which has been wrought within us according to the 
divine will, Christ takes up and pleads before the 
throne for us, " seeing he ever liveth to make inter- 
cession for us." Does the heart need comforting 
and enlightening, that " other advocate " searches its 
depths and voices its unutterable longings, and then 
the heavenly advocate prolongs and presses its suit 
before the Judge in heaven. Oh, blessed and unfailing 
advocacy! How can our case with such defendants 
be lost? "It is Satan's highest art," says John 
Banyan, "to get us to take our cases into some 
lower court, ko owing that he can never non-suit us 
in the court of heaven with such counsellors.' 7 God 
grant that in all the convictions of an accusing con- 
science we may have the wisdom to appeal to that 
court where the Lord Jesus has gone to appear 
for us. 

Now what a testimony to the Divine personality of 
the Spirit is found in the very fact of such a part- 
nership as this. Think you that in those sublime dox- 
ologies which are found in almost every epistle "to 
the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost," 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 451 

it is a mere impersonal influence which is thus linked 
up into co-equal fellowship with God and Christ. And 
in that passage in the Ephesians where the whole 
Trinity is mentioned in a single sweep of thought, 
"Through him we all have access by one Spirit 
unto the Father/' think you that it is only some mys- 
terious breath or impression that is thus made partner 
with God and the Son of God ? Oh, Holy Spirit ! since 
our fellowship also is with the Father and with the 
Son, so lift us into the lofty plane of thy communion 
with God that we may never be so irreverent as to 
drag thee down to the plane of our earthly and finite 
fellowship ! So near to Christ is the Holy Ghost, and 
yet so near, blessed be God, to us. Nothing in the 
New Testament so impresses me at once with the 
infallible deity of the Spirit, and with his familiar and 
tender fellowship with man, as that single phrase in 
the Acts of the Apostles, " It seemed good to the Holy 
Ghost and to us." The first serious controversy and 
dissension had arisen in the church. Had Christ been 
present, how quickly they would have sought him 
out for his advice and counsel. But he had gone 
into heaven to be their advocate. Yet that other 
advocate whom he had promised had come. And so 
real and personal was his presence to the disciples, 
so plain and decisive was his counsel to them, that 
they could say with all the positiveness of a client 
returning from a conference with his lawyer, "It 
seemed good to my counsellor and myself to do 



452 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

thus." Oh ! that we knew such communion with the 
Spirit, and had such sensible manifestations of his 
mind, that instead of saying so often, "It seemed 
good to us," we might say, " It seemed good to the 
Holy Ghost and to us. 

II. The text teaches also the abiding presence of the 
Holy Spirit in the Church. " That he may abide with 
you forever," or for the age, as it is in the original. 
Christ went away after a few brief years on earth, 
and sent the Spirit to fill up the interregnum between 
his departure and his coming again in his kingdom. 
The earth is now the abode of the Spirit, just as 
truly as it was the abode of Christ during his per- 
sonal ministry. We have not now to pray for the 
Holy Spirit to descend, any more than the disciples 
had need to pray for Christ to descend while he was 
already with them. For these eighteen hundred 
years the Holy Ghost has been among men, con- 
vincing the world of sin, and of righteousness, and 
of judgment; witnessing and interceding in the 
hearts of Christians; often sorely grieved by their 
sins, as the Master was; his admonitions often 
quenched, his testimony often rejected, his counsel 
often refused; yet always having somewhere a body 
of true believers where he could make his home. 

This coming and abiding of the Holy Spirit in the 
world seems to me the most powerful testimony to 
God's loving and persistent determination to dwell 
with men, however rejected and driven away by their 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 453 

sins. Each of the three persons of the Trinity has 
in turn dwelt upon the earth. God walked with man 
in the garden, talked familiarly with patriarchs and 
prophets, and dwelt at last in the cloud of glory over 
the mercy-seat in the Temple. But he was driven 
away by man's sin. There was no cloud of glory in 
the latter days of the Temple. Jewish tradition has 
the strange story that that sheckina-cloud moved 
slowly away from the Temple in the days of Jewish 
apostasy, and for three years and a half hung over 
the brow of Olivet, waiting in vain for the nation to 
repent, and then disappeared. It is probably but a 
legend, but it is a striking prophecy, at least. 

Now Christ, the second person of the Godhead, 
comes. " The Word was made flesh and tabernacled 
among us," says John. For three and a half years 
of his public ministry he pleaded with the people, 
only to be despised and rejected of men, till at last, 
turning to the Temple, he said : " Behold ! your house 
is left unto you desolate ; " and through the path of 
the cross, the resurrection and the ascension, he 
also went away. Then came the Holy Spirit — not to 
inhabit the temple on Mount Zion, but to dwell in a 
redeemed and regenerated church of living men. 
" Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and 
that the spirit of God dwelleth in you?" Do you 
wish to know where Christ is now? Without the 
slightest question I answer you that he is in the 
temple of God in heaven, in the presence of the 



454 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Father. Do you wish to know where the Holy Spirit 
is? With equal assurance I answer that he is in 
" the temple of God " on earth. " Know ye not that 
your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost that is in 
you?" Be terribly afraid, then, of the lusts that 
tarnish and defile this temple; drive out with the 
scourge of self-denial the avarice that would turn 
this temple into a house of merchandise, "for the 
temple of God is holy, which temple are ye." 

This fact of the present, personal abiding of the 
Holy Spirit upon the earth cannot be too strongly 
emphasized. There is danger that we grieve this 
present Spirit by the unbelief that counts him absent* 
To forget an absent friend is a serious slight ; but to 
forget a present friend, and be so little sensible of 
his nearness that we put him afar off in our thoughts, 
is a most grievous affront. The sin of the Jews was 
that they "knew not the day of their visitation," 
and looked and prayed for a Messiah yet to come, 
instead of believing on the Messiah that had come. 
With a telescopic faith they gazed on for the star of 
Balaam, saying: "I shall see him, but not now; I 
shall behold him, but not nigh. There shall come forth 
a star out of Jacob," and only an humble few had the 
simple faith to behold the Star of Bethlehem, already 
risen, and to follow where it led. Oh, the sin which 
puts God afar off, and cries, " Who shall ascend up 
into heaven to bring Christ down % " when the Word 
is nigh us, even in our mouth! So many pray for 
the Spirit now, calling to him beyond the stars to 



THE PERSONALITY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. 455 

come down to us, as though we knew not that he had 
been here for eighteen hundred years. I sometimes 
think that if Christ were to speak to us from the 
heavens, it would be to repeat to us concerning the 
Spirit what he once said concerning himself, " There 
standeth one among you that ye know not." The 
Spirit is here, and it is for us to open our hearts 
to give him entrance. Air only needs a vacuum to 
secure its swift and rushing presence. And the most 
prevailing prayer for the Spirit is a heart vacant of 
selfish idols. We need not and cannot repeat the 
day of Pentecost ; for on that day the Spirit came 
down, never to return till this dispensation shall end. 
But the waiting and praying of Pentecost we have 
need constantly to repeat. And if we might but 
open, to him a heart utterly empty of sin, the Spirit 
would come into us like "a rushing, mighty wind," 
and we should know the meaning of these words, 
"being filled with the Holy Ghost." 

I have said that the Holy Ghost is given to abide 
on earth during the present dispensation, or till the 
return of Christ to the world. And how striking it 
is that all the ordinances and instruments through 
which the Spirit works are limited to precisely the 
same era. The Word of God is the instrument 
through which the Spirit regenerates and sanctifies. 
And how long does the office of the Word continue? 
"We have also a more sure word of prophecy where- 
unto ye do well that ye take heed as unto a light that 
shineth in a dark place until the day daivn and the 



456 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

day-star arise." The ordinances of baptism and the 
Lord's supper are the agencies, in connection with 
the Word, for confession and sanctification. And 
how long do they continue their ministry in the 
church. "Even unto the end of the age," are the 
solemn words with which our baptismal commission 
ends. " Until he come, is the refrain with which the 
commandment to observe the Supper closes. Thus 
ordinances that point to the absent Christ testify of 
the present Spirit. They tell of Christ's return by 
the limit which is put to their continuance. The 
Spirit, the Word and the ordinances are the moon 
and stars that are to light our midnight journey till 
Christ, the Star of Day, shall once more arise upon 
the earth. God grant that in memory of that Sun 
now set, and in hope of that Star to arise again, we 
never forget the lesser lights that rule the night. 

Oh! Holy Spirit, help us to receive thee in the 
fullness of thine indwelling; to pray ever under the 
power of thy prevailing intercession ; to walk accord- 
ing to thy holy guidance : to live in the power of 
thine endless life. Oh ! Holy Spirit, open hearts that 
are yet closed to thy presence ; convince of sin those 
who are saying to themselves "we have no sin;" 
convince of righteousness those who are trusting in 
their vain self-righteousness; and convince of judg- 
ment those who know not that by Christ's death 
the prince of this world is cast out, and " there is 
now therefore no condemnation to them that are in 
Christ Jesus." 



BEGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 



BY REV. E. G. TAYLOR, D. D., OF PROVIDENCE, R. I. 



♦'Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of 
God." John iii. 3. 

Is Regeneration essential to salvation ? This ques- 
tion is definitely settled by our Lord himself, in his 
conversation with Nicodemus. In no abstract way 
could the necessity of the new birth have been so 
forcibly taught. In this "ruler of the Jews" we 
have the highest reach of nature and of law in their 
efforts to fit a man for the " kingdom of God. 77 Here 
is their brightest blossom and their fairest fruit; 
but as God had not respect unto Cain and his altar 
garlanded with flowers and enriched with the best 
products of the earth, so our Lord could not accept 
the righteousness of ^"icodemus — though none of 
Israel was more worthy than he — as fitting him to be 
a subject of that spiritual kingdom which Christ came 
to establish. Canon Farrar suggests 1 that the title in 
verse 10, "Master of Israel,' 7 may signify his rank as 
"the teacher 77 or "the wise man, 77 the third member 
of the Sanhedrim. It is evident that he was a man 



l Life of Christ, Vol. I., p. 199. 

457 



458 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

of culture, refinement, and of zeal for the law; a 
religious man, sincere in his convictions, and honest 
in his desire to do right. It would seem as if all 
meritorious qualifications met in him ; and yet over 
against them all the unseen hand of truth had writ- 
ten, "come short," and "thou art weighed in the 
balance and found wanting." Jesus sweeps away 
with a breath all hope of fitness for God's kingdom 
by natural birth or natural development, saying, 
" except a man be born again he cannot see the king- 
dom of God." 

I. — Let us define terms. According to Godet, 1 " In 
the view of Mcodeinus and his colleagues, the king- 
dom of God was only this life glorified, and its 
appearance an external and political matter. Hence 
to them the new birth must be of the same nature 
as the first." But, though by the " kingdom of God " 
here is not meant heaven, yet it is the heavenly rule 
on earth, as if a section of heaven had come down 
to earth with heaven's atmosphere, and laws, and 
requirements for citizenship ; it is the spiritual king- 
dom begun here, which shall be transferred to and 
continued in the eternal sphere ; and, as our Lord 
uses the phrase, it is equivalent to saying that a man 
must be born again to enter heaven. 

Though the phrase " born again" may be rendered^ 
as in the margin, " born from above," the stronger 

1 Commentary on John, Vol. II., p. 48. 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 459 

rendering of our accepted translation is better, both 
by grammatical construction and by the fact that 
Kicodemus so understands it, inquiring, perhaps 
with an assumed ignorance, "How can a man be 
born when he is old? Can he enter the second 
time into his mother's womb and be born?" The 
expression is one which denotes a change which is 
radical and fundamental, and implies that a man 
needs to be renewed in the very source of his 
being; that he must become a new creation, as 
much as if he were decomposed into his original 
parts, and formed anew. For, as says Dean Alford, 
"it is not learning, but life, that is wanted for the 
Messiah's kingdom, and life begins by birth." What 
this great change is, we shall discuss farther along. 
In saying " Except a man," and in addressing one 
who was an exalted type of what education, sin- 
cerity and religious influences can do for a man, 
Jesus teaches us the absolute and universal necessity 
of the Xew Birth. It is something predicated of the 
whole human race, and grows out, not of unfortunate 
circumstances in which some may be placed, nor of 
special weaknesses and moral deformities which may 
be conspicuous in others ; but out of man's condition 
as man, as lost, as dead, as ruined, as tainted through 
and through, and corrupted by sin, and as having a 
nature which is hostile to God and can never be 
brought into subjection to him. It is not of yon- 
der dissipated and blasphemous wretch, nor of that 



460 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

despised outcast, of whom Jesus speaks ; but in this 
phrase " except a man," he embraces the noble and 
the virtuous, as well as the worthless and the vile. 
This was a hard saying to Mcodemus, and is now to 
such as would build up a righteousness of their own 
upon the rotten basis of the old self. But Jesus 
explains by saying, " That which is born of the flesh 
is flesh." It can never become spirit. It can never 
be other than flesh, with its sin and decay, and offen- 
siveness to God. A skeleton in ribbons is still a 
hideous thing, and all the more unsightly from the 
futile attempt to give it an appearance of life. Man 
at his best is as much included in this necessity of 
Regeneration as at his worst. For it is only that 
which is bom of the Spirit that is Spirit, and that 
birth of the Spirit is Regeneration. The tallest of 
men is not appreciably nearer the sun than the 
shortest. Both alike would need to cross the line 
of the sun's superior attractive power in order, to 
iourney to that great centre. Though they may 
differ in age, and height, and color, and attainments, 
yet in this "there is no difference;" and whatever 
differences there may be in men in the matter of 
cultivation, or moral development, they alike are 
included in our Lord's declaration, " Except a man 
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
There is force also in the word "see," as here 
used ; for the old nature is blind, and cannot discern 
spiritual things. There is a spiritual world, a king- 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 4G1 

dom of God, which has come down to us 3 but men do 
not see it, nor will they, until the new nature, which 
has spiritual vision, is implanted. Having thus 
denned the terms which our Lord employs in this 
broad and sweeping assertion, let us consider the 
great truth which is presented in it, that — 

II. — Regeneration, or the New Birth, is Essential to 
Salvation. We may here define Kegeneration as that 
act of God upon us by which, through the Gospel as 
a means, the governing disposition of the soul is 
made holy. It includes, or brings about, an entire 
change of character, and gives a holy meetness for 
heaven. 

1. The Scriptures are very full and explicit upon this 
point. To the objections offered by Mcodemus, 
Christ replies, explaining the nature of the new 
birth, and repeating in the most peremptory form, 
"Ye must be born again." Indeed, our Lord 
expresses surprise that the " master n or leader " of 
Israel" should not know these things; because a 
careful study of the Old Testament Scriptures would 
surely reveal them. Not that Christ's phrase, " born 
again," will be found there, but the same teach- 
ing runs through them from beginning to end. All 
such Scriptures as represent man as destitute of 
spiritual life, as hostile to God, as dead in sin, as 
corrupt, as having a heart which is " deceitful above 
all things and desperately wicked" (Jer. xvii. 9), 
imply the necessity of the new birth, that man may 



462 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

enter the heavenly kingdom. Early in the history of 
our race God saw that u every imagination of the 
thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually " 
(Gen. vi. 5.) The words " every," " only " and " con- 
tinually" are significant. "The Lord looked down 
from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there 
were any that did understand, and seek God. They 
are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy; 
there is none that doeth good — no, not one." (Ps. 
xiv. 2, 3.) Can assertion of the condition of man's 
old nature as irremediable go further? Can any con- 
clusion be stronger, or more legitimate from such 
facts, than that he must have a new nature if he 
would be in harmony with God and heaven? But 
in Ezekiel there is the direct teaching to this effect. 
" Make you a new heart and a new spirit ; for why 
will you die, O house of Israel ¥ w "A new heart 
also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put 
within you." (Ezek. xviii. 31; xxxvi. 26.) As also 
in David's prayer : " Create in me a clean heart, O 
God, and renew a right spirit within me." ( Ps. li. 10.) 
Thus much for the Old Testament, which abounds 
in expressions of equal force with those quoted, 
and which our Lord believed should have taught 
Mcodemus that doctrine which fell so strangely 
upon his ears. The entire scope of the New Tes- 
tament is in harmony with the words of Jesus 
as in the text. The Apostle to the Gentiles sets 
at naught all the claims of the Jew as a child 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 463 

of God on account of his descent from Abra- 
ham, saying, " In Christ Jesus neither circumcision 
availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
creature." (Gal. vi. 15.) " If any man be in Christ, 
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away ; 
behold, all things are become new." (II. Cor. v. 
17.) The uniform testimony of the inspired writers 
is that, by nature, our state is one of irrecoverable 
ruin. u The carnal mind is enmity against God ; for 
it is not subject to the law of God; neither, indeed, 
can be." (Rom. yiii. 7.) And furthermore, man's 
condition is not only one of native ruin, but also of 
native helplessness, so far as remedying the fatal 
defect. "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the 
leopard his spots? then may ye also do good who 
are accustomed to do evil." ( Jer. xiii. 23.) There is 
no promise of blessedness in the future world to the 
unregenerate. Jesus says : " Many will say unto me 
in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in 
thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy 
name done many wonderful works % and then will I 
profess unto them, I never knew you ; depart from 
me, ye that work iniquity." ( Matt. vii. 21-23.) And 
the most terrible threatenings are spoken concerning 
such as remain in their sins. How fallacious are the 
hopes of the ungodly ! And God is unchangeable, 
the day of reckoning will find him as determined to 
punish those who die in nature and in sin as when 
he uttered the proclamation of wrath. Look at the 



464 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Scripture as we will, at the picture of man's ruin; 
of his helplessness; of the wrath to come upon the 
ungodly; at the demands for holiness, without which 
no one can see the Lord ; at the character of God ; 
at the descriptions of heaven ; at the cross of Christ 
and the shed blood, without which there is no remis- 
sion; at invitations and warnings; at parable and 
story and didactic teaching; all join in confirmation 
of the assertion of Christ, " Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." 

2. If we look at the nature of Regeneration, we shall 
see that it is Essential to Salvation. We have already 
seen that it is something radical and fundamental. 
It is not mere reformation, or a simple renunciation 
of error and reception of truth. That may occur, 
and the heart be unaffected. A newly-awakened 
love of family, or desire for respectability, may 
prove powerful incentives to restrain a man from 
evil, or may lead one out of the slough of sensual- 
ism. A certain loftiness of mind may keep one from 
degrading sins ; or strong selfish motives, such as a 
miser has in hoarding his gold, may prove a barrier 
against dissipation. Yet the evil within is not elim- 
inated or lessened, and like a fire in the earth, 
repressed in one place, it bursts forth in another. 
Sin reveals itself in forms less offensive to society, 
but equally hateful in the. sight of God. Men's 
reforms are like lopping off branches of the evil 
tree, while the poisonous root, from which other 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 465 

branches will spring, is not only unharmed, bnt 
cherished and assiduously cultivated. A man in an 
easy chair cannot lift the chair with himself in it by 
tugging at its arms. He needs a power outside and 
above him. And men need a divine power to lift 
them from the weight of their own dead selves. 

Regeneration is more than is included in a life of 
morality. Else the young ruler who came running 
to Christ with the all-important question, "What 
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life ? - w ( Mark x. 
17), would not have gone away sorrowful. Nor 
would it have been necessary for Christ to chill, 
with the words of the text, the advances of so dis- 
tinguished and important a supporter as Nicodemus 
was likely to be. Society is permeated with the 
Pantheistic sentiment that holiness, or at least fitness 
for heaven, can be obtained by merely natural growth 
or development. Men tell us that " the salvation of 
the soul is no more miraculously obtained than that 
the grass grows, or the rain falls, or the sun shines 
miraculously." That is, salvation comes according 
to nature, as much as the swelling of the buds and 
the growth of the seeds. The mistake lies not so 
much in the analogy of development, as in the fact 
that holiness has in human nature nothing to be 
developed from. " Who can bring a clean thing out 
of an unclean ? Not one.' 7 ( Job xiv. 4.) There must 
be the seed created by the divine hand, and cast into 
the barren earth, before the fields can smile with 

29 



£66 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

abundant harvests. In vain would be all the hus- 
bandman's exhortations either to empty soil, or to 
the pebbles and stones that may be scattered around, 
to yield him a crop of cotton or of wheat. He must 
have like to produce like. And the " carnal mind," 
that is not simply at enmity with God, but enmity 
itself, has in it nothing to produce likeness to God. 
Cultivation carried to the highest extent can never 
turn the pebble into the living tree. After all, Eegen- 
eration is a miracle wrought by the Holy Spirit in 
man; so mysterious, so hidden in its operation, that 
it is known only by its effects; so subtle that the 
learned "Master of Israel" could not understand it, 
and even Christ contents himself with asserting it. 
It is infinitely more than the highest result which 
man can, with all his efforts, produce upon himself. 
For he has not the inclination, the power, the soil, 
nor the seed, from which this marvellous work of 
Eegeneration comes. Let men talk as they will, 
there is no true morality aside from the working out 
in life whatever God works in, in Eegeneration. All 
else is in his sight but the garnishing of the sepul- 
chre, which within is full of dead men's bones. 

" They talk of morals, O thou bleeding Lamb, 
The grand morality is love to thee." 

It is needless to say that the profession of faith is 
not synonymous with the new birth. Else the Phar- 
isees had been the favorite children of the Lord; for 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 4C7 

profession, as an ivy vine, spread with a profuse 
growth over them, concealing from man, but not 
from Christ, the rottenness within. It was to such 
as made broad their phylacteries, more intent upon 
carrying the law upon their foreheads than in their 
hearts; who uttered long prayers at the street cor- 
ners, and gave but to be seen of men, that Jesus 
turned with withering denunciation, saying: "How 
can ye escape the damnation of hell ? n 

This work of Begeneration is not to be transferred 
to the intellect as its seat. That the understanding 
is enlightened and the mental faculties quickened in 
the process is true, but these are but accompani- 
ments, and not the work itself. Perhaps the Scrip- 
tural truth as to this matter has no greater foe than 
that pride of intellect which arrogates to itself the 
right of first place and chief consideration, and 
would make itself the subject as well as the judge 
of even spiritual processes. The Gospel, to the 
ancient Greek, was foolishness; and it is now to some 
scientists, because it was neither discovered, nor 
can be fathomed, by the intellect. There is no flavor 
of man's wisdom in the cross ; there is no detecting 
by men's microscopes the operation of the Spirit in 
the new birth, nor the dropping of the seed of a 
divine faith into the penitent heart. From the eye of 
mere culture, the spiritual world is hidden, and there- 
fore men say that it does not exist. Hence the 
restlessness, and more, the antagonism, which this 



±68 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

levelling doctrine of the new birth encounters among* 
many cultivated men, and the intense desire to carry 
it into the region of the head, and there settle it, 
when its sphere is distinctively that of the heart. 
For it is the heart, and it is the will, that are the 
seat of moral death and ruin, and it is with the heart 
that man must believe unto righteousness. A man 
bitten by a deadly serpent may have in his hand the 
sufficient remedy for the poison which is coursing 
through his veins, and which is about to bring con- 
gestion and death ; he may hold it up to the light and 
admire it, and talk learnedly about its ingredients, and 
tell just how the medicine, when taken, will counter- 
act the disease; and yet he may perish, and will, if 
he does nothing more. For it is not the hand that 
holds the medicine, nor the mind that discourses elo- 
quently upon it, that is the point to be reached ; but 
the whole system, of which the stomach is the centre, 
and from which life, through the remedy received 
into it, must radiate to every part. How many talk 
learnedly of religion, and even of the doctrines of 
grace, who recoil from the humbling teaching of the 
new birth, and like Nicodemus, know not " these 
things." 

The new birth is not a creation of new faculties, 
nor an increase in the number of original endow- 
ments. Here is a man who yesterday was in sin, 
and to-day is in Christ. He is a new creature, by the 
operation of God through the truth. Yet he has the 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 469 

same physical structure — the same eyes, face, form, 
mind, breadth, culture. Yesterday his tongue blas- 
phemed God; such is not the case to-day — not 
because it is paralyzed, and cannot utter wicked 
words, for, on the contrary, it is active in praising 
God. His arm that was raised in rebellion is the 
same that now puts forth its energy in the Lord's 
work. If you ask him wherein is the difference, he 
may not be able to explain it. But, putting his hand 
upon his heart, he says : " The difference is here — 
old things are passed away ; all things are become 
new." There is a new ruler in the house of the soul, 
who has swept and garnished it, and has taken pos- 
session as the controlling and governing force ; who 
has rescued his faculties and powers from the 
thraldom of sin, and has purified and turned them 
about, and taken them into the exalted service of 
holiness. For these faculties of body and mind are 
not the seat of sin, and were not made for its base 
uses. They are adapted, by the divine hand, to 
higher ends. They may be fitted for such service as 
angels give, and find in it their true employment and 
development. Yonder is a ship upon the high seas, 
perfect in all its equipments, and freighted with 
precious lives and valuable merchandise. It was 
constructed for noble uses, and the sky is clear, and 
the winds are favorable to speed it on its way to its 
proper port. But there is an evil pilot on board, 
whose intent it is to destroy it. He is steering it 



470 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

towards that reef of rocks, and, in his efforts to 
bring it to ruin, he is aided by the very excellence of 
its parts. The sturdy masts, and strong sails, and 
stiff breeze, but hasten it to its destruction. But 
change your pilot ; put a true man in charge, and 
every spar and bit of cordage feels the difference ; 
and wind, and sail, and masts, and rudder, all combine 
to bring the vessel safely to its haven. No illustra- 
tion is perfect, and this is far from it; but it may 
illustrate this one point, that in Eegeneration there 
is a new governing power, and that every fibre of 
body and mind is to feel the thrill of its rulership, 
and to own its sway. And this new governing power 
is no less than a new nature. It is not the divine 
method to seek to improve that which is dead and 
worthless, or to attempt to turn enmity into love. 
The old nature is beyond cultivation, even by the 
divine hand, and it is fit only to be crucified. There 
is the implanting of a new nature, the becoming 
"partakers of the divine nature" (II. Pet. i. 4); and 
this new nature begotten in us by God " with the 
word of truth " (James i. 18) is that which is the new 
man in Christ Jesus; is that which sings at the 
approach of its Lord; is that which alone rejoices 
in his love, delights in his presence, and, becoming 
master of the regenerated one, is in harmony with 
God and heaven. 

If such be the nature of Regeneration; if it be 
higher, and deeper, and broader than man's best 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 471 

attainments ; if it be the crucifixion of the old, and 
the imparting of a new nature which hates sin and 
loves holiness; of a nature which is in harmony with 
God's character and requirements; then man must 
be regenerated, or he is in perpetual dissonance with 
the government and the holiness of God, at eternal 
war with his Creator— and that means eternal wretch- 
edness and misery. 

3. Regeneration is essential to bring man where he is 
influenced by Gospel motives, and by the Word of God. 
According to Scripture, we are " born again, not of 
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word 
of God, which liveth and abideth forever." (I. Pet. 
i. 23.) Gospel truth is the means through which the 
new life comes to the soul. It is " he that heareth 
my ivord, and belie veth on him that sent me, hath 
everlasting life." (John v. 21.) Now, all is in perfect 
keeping here. One needs to be begotten " with the 
Word of truth," which is the new birth, in order to 
be guided and moulded by the truth. But this truth 
is from God, and endures forever. There is no sal- 
vation but in conformity to it. "Indignation and 
wrath" are the portion of such as "do not obey the 
truth, but obey unrighteousness." ( Eom. ii. 8.) In 
II. Thessalonians i. 7, 8, we are taught that "the 
Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on 
them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel 
of our Lord Jesus Christ." And, in I. Peter iv. 17, 



472 BAPTIST DOCTRINES, 

we are asked the solemn question, "What shall 
the end be of them that obey not the Gospel of 
Gail" Furthermore, the children of God "purify 
their souls in obeying the truth " (I. Pet. i. 22), and are 
kept clean from the defilements of life by " the mash- 
ing of water by the Word." ( Eph. v. 26.) In all of 
which we see that he alone is saved and conformed 
to the image of the Son, who hears and receives the 
Word; who has the new life come to him through 
the Word; and to whom the Word is "the lamp to 
Ms feet and the light to his path ; " who is controlled, 
shaped, cleansed, seized upon and possessed by the 
Word ; who can say with the Psalmist ( Ps. cxix. 11), 
6s Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might 
not sin against thee." But all this is the work, the 
accompaniment, and the result of Eegeneration. It 
is the new birth alone, and not any culture of the old 
nature, which brings us into the position where the 
Word of God, which is the law of heaven, is infinitely 
sweet, and his will the souPs supreme delight. This 
is far from being the case with the unregenerate. 
u The ungodly are not so." Their delight is not in 
the law of the Lord, nor do they meditate in the law 
day and night. (Ps. ii. 2.) They cannot say, "How 
sweet are thy words unto my taste ! yea, sweeter 
than honey to my mouth ! " ( Ps. cxix. 103.) On the 
contrary, the Gospel falls upon dead ears ; the book 
of God is shunned because it condemns them; its 
precepts, which mould the character for heaven, are 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 473 

disregarded. How, then, can the unregenerate man 
be saved, when the Gospel, the means by which life 
comes to him, is unheeded ; and the Word, which 
gives the heavenly pattern to which the saved con- 
form, is to him as an idle tale ? 

4. The Regeneration of the soul is demanded by the 
nature and employments of the Heavenly World. 

The superficial thought is prevalent that "the only 
obstacle to the eternal felicity of the ungodly is the 
determination of Jehovah to close against them the 
gates of the eternal city." 1 It is argued that, this 
being the case, God is too tender and complaisant to 
hold out in this arbitrary enactment, but will yield at 
last, in a gush of sentiment, and receive the evil and 
the good alike into glory. It seems to be conven- 
iently forgotten that," constituted as man is, misery is 
the natural and necessary result of unholy character. 
For God himself does not attempt the impossible task 
of saving his people in their sins, but from them." 2 
Neither the torments of the damned nor the bliss of 
the saved will result mainly from the place to which 
they shall be consigned, though the place be hell with 
its horrors, or heaven with its unspeakable splendor, 
^ot denying or underrating the positive punishments 
inflicted upon the lost, yet it will be true that "the 
hell of the sinner will be in his own bosom; " and if 
the hand of God should not directly touch him, yet 

i Payne's Lectures, p. 388. 
2 Payne's Lectures. 



474 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

his portion will be with, the never-dying worm of an 
accusing conscience; with the unquenchable fire of 
self-reproach, with the torments of an unholy nature 
which shall know no restraints in its developments 
in sin. It is not an arbitrary fiat, " He which is filthy, 
let him be filthy still ; and he that is holy, let him be 
holy still." ( Eev. xxii. 11.) It is but the expression of 
the unalterable nature of things. Yet men, ignorant 
of the nature of the heavenly world, and picturing it 
as adapted to their unrenewed tastes, and imagining 
that a change of circumstances will cure the ills which 
attend this life, suppose that if, by any means, they 
could break down the decree which keeps them out, 
or could elude the vigilance of the angel wardens 
and enter, they would be supremely blest forever. 
They forget that character determines destiny, and 
that in the case of the angels who kept not their first 
estate, even heaven itself was a place of misery until 
they were cast out. It is a true sentiment which 
Milton has put into the mouth of Satan, 

" Which way I fly is Hell; myself am Hell." 

Could it be that the unregenerate man should 
enter heaven, it would yield him no delight. Its 
duties would be irksome, its pleasures insipid and 
joyless. The illiterate boor, shut up in the society of 
philosophers, soon wearies of their learned discourse, 
and longs to break loose and rejoin his boon com- 
panions. Now, to the unregenerate holiness is 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 475 

insufferable here. They do not delight to meditate 
upon it, nor to seek after it. It belongs to a world 
outside of their existence. But holiness is the 
supreme characteristic of heaven. Seraphim s there, 
with veiled faces, cry, " Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord 
of hosts." ( Is. vi. 3.) "And into that city there shall 
in no wise enter anything that defileth, neither what- 
soever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie ; but 
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." 
(Rev. xxi. 27.) Holiness is the bliss of heaven. To 
be freed from the corpse of sin which is chained to 
us here; to be purified from every taint of evil; to be 
made holy like God, beyond the reach of the lusts of 
the flesh or the temptations of Satan; this is the 
ardent longing of every child of God, and because of 
this attainment, heaven to him is unutterably glorious. 
But there is nothing in death, nor in change of loca- 
tion, to give to the unregenerate man that relish for 
holiness and spiritual delights, which is foreign to 
him here, and which he must have to enter and enjoy 
the celestial city. 

The pursuits of heaven are such as are here irksome 
to the unregenerate. For they are hearty and inces- 
sant service to God and the Lamb. In the view of 
the heavenly city, in Revelation, we see the four 
living creatures and the elders — as representatives 
of the Church of God — and the angelic hosts vieing 
with each other in their ascriptions of praise, and of 
honor, and of glory, and of power, to him that sitteth 



476 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

on the throne, and to the Lamb forever. They sing 
with wondrous enthusiasm the new song of Redemp- 
tion through the blood. But, however men may join 
in external acts of worship here, is it true that the 
unregenerate delight in the perfections of God, and 
in the atoning work of Christ? Is their will lost in 
his, and is it their joy to present their "bodies as a 
living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is 
their reasonable service % " ( Rom. xii. 1.) 

To the redeemed soul, heaven is nothing without 
the enjoyment of God and the presence of Christ. 
Paul, in the fulness of his labors, expresses his desire 
"to depart and be with Christ, which is far better." 
( Phil. i. 23.) The Apostle John exultingly says : " We 
know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, 
for we shall see him as he is." ( I. John iii. 2.) And, 
in Revelation, Christ is seen in heaven as the Lamb 
bearing the marks of sacrifice, and the centre of 
adoration and worship. To meet him whom here we 
have known as the "man of sorrows," and see him 
as the glorified Son of God ; to greet him not as a 
stranger, but as the friend who died for our sins and 
rose again for our justification ; to be associated with 
him forever ; this is the blessed prospect which stirs 
the Christian heart with a deathless enthusiasm, and 
causes us to joyfully respond to our Lord's declara- 
tion, "Surely I come quickly;" with the prayer, 
"Even so, Lord Jesus, come." 

But, do the unregenerate delight in Christ here % 



REGENERATION ESSENTIAL TO SALVATION. 477 

Is he to them the one "altogether lovely?" Is the 
thought of God one which inspires them with pleas- 
ure ? or do they not desire to banish him from their 
minds and hearts ? And if, perchance, the subject of 
personal union with Christ be introduced as a theme 
in their presence, there is constraint ; and they are 
at ease again only when the topic is exchanged for 
some worldly one. Jesus is not 



' All the clay long 
Their joy and their song.' 



They cannot sit under his shadow with great delight. 
How, then, shall they endure Heaven, when the pres- 
ence of God and the Lamb is that which gives to the 
upper world its inextinguishable radiance ? Introduce 
that unregenerate heart into the glorious company of 
the angels and redeemed. Let him visit circle after 
circle, and group upon group of the heavenly inhab- 
itants, and endeavor to share in their service and 
delights, and what congeniality is there for such as 
he? He listens to them telling of redeeming love; 
he'hears their acclamations of praise; he sees them 
striking their harps to the lofty strains of joy. But 
wherever he turns, there is but the one theme 
Eedemption through God's abounding grace; and 
of this they never weary. There is the impress of 
holiness in their faces, and the mark of God's pro- 
prietorship upon their foreheads. He could not be 



478 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

happy there, for to share in heaven's enjoyments, 
one must be born again. 

Thus, not arbitrary is this radical saying of Jesus. 
The whole tenor of Scripture ; the lost condition of 
man; the nature of the work of regeneration; the 
imperative necessity of a holy character ; the nature 
of the heavenly world — all combine to give emphasis 
to this saying of Jesus, "Except a man be born 
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 7 ' 



PREDESTINATION. 



BY REV. RICHARD FULLER, D. D. LATE OF BALTI- 



tt And now I exhort you to be of good cheer; for there shall be 
no loss of any man's life among you, but of the ship. For 
there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am 
and whom I serve, saying, Fear not Paul: thou must be 
brought before Caesar; and lo, God hath given thee all them 
that sail with thee. And as the shipmen were about to flee 
out of the ship when they had let down the boat into the 
sea, under color as though they would have cast anchors 
out of the foreship, Paul said to the centurion and to the 
soldiers, Except these abide in the ship ye cannot be saved." 
—Acts xxvii : 22, 23, 24, 30, 31. 

It was Mr. Pitt, I believe, who, after reading 
Butler's Analogy, remarked that " it suggested more 
doubts than it answered." In removing one diffi- 
culty, we ought to be careful lest we create others 
which are greater. However, in speaking of the 
deep things of God, all we can do is to show how far 
the human understanding can go, when it ceases to 
obey reason, and debases itself to mere scholastic 
logic. 

You are all familiar with the narrative of Paul's 
shipwreck. In spite of some plausible objections, 

1 Taken from Fuller's Sermons, published by J. F. Weis- 
ha-Mpel, Jr., Baltimore, Md., in three volumes. $1.00 each. 

479 



480 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

it is certain almost to demonstration that the vessel 
was lost upon the island now known as Malta. The 
whole description is very graphic; the impending- 
danger; the commanding attitude of the Apostle 
during that fearful night; his inspiring address as 
the dim morning light reveals the terrified, haggard 
company — two hundred and seventy-six in all — 
shivering on the deck of the sinking ship ; the effect 
of his exhortation ; and the rescue of all on board. 

As you read the account, you feel that, if the 
sailors believed Paul's declaration as to a revelation 
from heaven, it would put fresh heart in them to 
work, as it really did. Nor does it strike you that 
there is any contradiction between this positive as- 
surance of safety to all and the subsequent warning 
as to the impossibility of saving the passengers 
unless the crew remained in the stranded bark. 

Our philosophers, however, are astonished at your 
simplicity, and, of .course, at the simplicity of the 
Apostle and the inspired historian. For if God had 
determined that all should reach the land in safety, 
how could it be affirmed that in any case some would 
be lost I 

The Eoman centurion had, I dare say, quite as 
much sagacity as these cavillers, yet he urged no 
objection, but at once complied with Paul's counsels. 
And just so now. When in earnest, no man ever 
pretends that predestination has anything to do with 
his free agency. No farmer — though in theology the 



PREDESTINATION. 481 

most fierce hyper-Calvinist — was ever heard of, fool- 
ish enough to neglect the cultivation of his fields, 
because nothing can be left to contingencies, and, 
therefore, it is predetermined whether he shall reap 
a harvest or not. In a shipwreck no fatalist ever 
folded his arms, saying, " If I am to perish, I will 
perish; if I am to be saved, I will be saved." When 
danger presses, the peasant and philosopher alike 
cry to God for deliverance, and put forth all their 
efforts. It is only in idle speculations, or when seek- 
ing to lull their consciences in impenitence and dis- 
obedience, that the enemies of God insult him, by 
pleading his decrees as a pretext for their indolence 
and passions. 

I am going to offer you some thoughts upon this 
difficult subject, treating it first doctrinally, and then 
practically. It is very seldom that such abstruse 
discussions find a place in this pulpit ; and now noth- 
ing is farther from my wishes than that any of you 
should be encouraged to leave the paths of pure, un- 
defiled, simple piety, for the mysteries of tangled 
metaphysical polemics. " The secret things belong 
unto the Lord our God ; but those things which are 
revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, 
that we may do all the words of this law. 7 ' 

If we are properly engaged about the plain duties 
of the Gospel, we will not be tempted to perplex 
ourselves with the subtleties of controversial divin- 
ity, any more than will a traveller, pressing home- 

31 



£82 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

ward, wish to leap into every quicksand that he may 
fathom its depths, or to rush into every thicket by 
the wayside that he may try how far he can pene- 
trate. It was through pride of reasoning that man 
;CeIL Eevelation constantly assails the arrogance 
which impiously arraigns the credibility of the divine 
word, unless our puny intellects can comprehend 
things which it is the glory of God to conceal. The 
design of the Gospel is to humble this temper, and 
to nourish in us the spirit of " a little child," without 
which the mind will go on sounding its dim and peril- 
ous way, till it is lost in endless mazes, bewildered 
inextricably in dark, interminable labyrinths. 

As, however, men affecting to be wits and geniuses 
are, in books and in conversation, forever parading 
their flippancies on the question of predestination 
and free-agency, it is worth while to show them, once 
for all, how little they can take by their infidelity and 
ribaldry. 

I. I am first to treat our subject doctrinally. And 
you see at once that it presents the very question 
which, century after century, has been the source of 
bitter controversy ; which has not only supplied the 
sceptic with his sneers, but has exasperated pulpit 
against pulpit, church against church, and council 
against council. The problem to which I refer is 
that of God's decrees and man's moral agency, to 
solve which two systems have been advocated, two 
parties have been formed. Let us examine each of 



PREDESTINATION. 483 

these systems, let us hear each of these parties, 
whom— that I may avoid the shibboleths of hostile 
religious prejudices and factions— I will designate 
as the Libertarians and the Necessarians. 

The Libertarians reject the doctrine of predesti- 
nation ; they deny that God has fore-ordained all 
things. But, now, can this negation be even men- 
tioned without shocking our reason and our rever- 
ence for the oracles of eternal truth? 

I might easih* show that nothing is gained by this 
denial, that it only removes the difficulty a little 
farther back. This system rejects predestination, 
and maintains that God has left all men to act as 
they choose. But what is meant by a man's acting 
as he chooses ? It is, of course, that he obeys the 
impulses of his own feelings and passions. Well, 
did not God endow him with these passions ? Did 
not God know that if certain temptations assailed 
the creature to whom he had given these passions, 
he would fall ? Did he not foresee that these temp- 
tations would assail him ? Did he not permit these 
temptations to assail him? Could he not have pre- 
vented these temptations? Why did he form him 
with these passions? Why did he allow him to be 
exposed to these temptations? Why, in short — hav- 
ing a perfect fore-knowledge that such a being, so 
constituted and so tempted, would sin and perish — 
why did he create him at all? None will deny the 
divine fore-knowledge ; and I at once admit that the 



484 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

mere foreseeing an event, which we cannot hinder 
and have no agency in accomplishing, does not in- 
volve us in any responsibility. But when the Creator, 
of his own sovereign pleasure, calls an intelligent 
agent into being, fashions him with certain powers 
and appetites, and places him amid scenes where he 
clearly sees that temptations will overcome him — in 
such a case it is self-evident that our feeble faculties 
cannot separate fore-knowledge from fore-appoint- 
ment. The denial of preordination does not, there- 
fore, at all relieve any objection, it only conceals the 
difficulty from the ignorant and unthinking. 

But even if the theory of the Libertarians were 
not a plain evasion, it would be impossible for us to 
accept such a solution ; for it dethrones Jehovah ; it 
surrenders the entire government of the world to 
mere chance, to wild caprice and disorder. Accord- 
ing to this system, nature, providence, grace are 
only departments of atheism ; God has no control 
over the earth and its affairs ; or — if that be too 
monstrous and revolting, — he exercises authority 
over matter, but none over the minds and hearts of 
men. " The king's heart is in the hands of the Lord 
as rivers of water, he turneth' it whithersoever he 
will "; — such is the declaration of the Holy Spirit ; 
but this theory rejects this truth. God exercises no 
control over men's hearts, consequently prophecy is 
an absurdity; providence is a chimera; prayer is a 
mockery; since God does not interfere in mortal 



PREDESTINATION. 485 

events, but abandons all to the wanton humors and 
passions of myriads of independent agents, none of 
whose whims and impulses he restrains, by whom his 
will is constantly defeated and trampled under foot. 
A creed so odious, so abhorrent to all reason and 
religion, need only be carried out to its consequences 
and no sane mind can adopt it. 

And this heresy is condemned on every page of 
the Bible. It is deeply to be lamented that theologi- 
cal partisans so often treat texts of Scripture, as 
hired advocates in our courts treat those witnesses 
whose evidence damages their cause, — cross-exam- 
ining and brow-beating the clearest passages, — seek- 
ing to perplex their plain meaning — and to extort 
from them a testimony they will not and cannot give. 
But after all ingenuity has been exhausted, how un- 
equivocal is the language of inspiration. "The 
counsel of the Lord standeth forever, the thought of 
his heart to all generations." "All the inhabitants 
of the earth are reputed as nothing, he doeth accord- 
ing to his will in the army of heaven, and among the 
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, 
or say unto him, What doest thou?" "And they 
prayed and said, Lord show whether of these two 
thou hast chosen ; that he may take part of this min- 
istry and apostleship." "Whom God did foreknow 
he did predestinate, moreover whom he did predes- 
tinate them he also called." "Being predestinated 
according to the purpose of him who worketh all 



486 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

things after the counsels of his own will." Passages 
like these might be easily multiplied, but I prefer to 
take another course, and to establish the doctrines 
of the Sacred Oracles by a sort of proof which is 
very striking, and which silences all cavil and 
sophistry. 

The depositions to which I now refer are gathered 
from those narratives in which man's free agency is 
taken for granted or expressly affirmed, while at the 
same time,' the entire event is ascribed directly to 
God's over-ruling decrees. Let us turn for a moment 
to these records, and let us begin with the transpor- 
tation of Joseph into Egypt. Eead the history of 
his mission to his brethren, of the conspiracy among 
these brethren to slay him, of Keuben's scheme to 
save his life and restore him to his father, of the 
arrival of the Ishmaelite merchants, of Judah's prop- 
osition to sell him to them, and of the cruel and un- 
natural traffic. There never was a transaction in 
which human passions — envy, hatred, revenge, cu- 
pidity — were more confessedly the sole ruling cause 
and motive from first to last. " And the patriarchs," 
said Stephen, "moved with envy, sold Joseph into 
Egypt." Yet the result, from beginning to end, is 
ascribed to God's purpose and decree. " And Joseph 
said unto his brethren, Be not grieved nor angry 
with yourselves, that ye sold me hither, for God did 
send me before you to preserve life. So now it was 
not you that sent me hither, but God." And the 



PREDESTINATION. 487 

Psalmist utters the same declaration. "He sent a 
man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a 
servant, whose feet they hurt with fetters, he was 
laid in irons until the time that his word came, the 
word of the Lord tried him." 

Take, next, the fatal obduracy of Pharaoh. In the 
book of Genesis it is repeatedly said that " Pharaoh 
hardened his heart and sinned yet the more," but in 
the same chapters it is declared that "The Lord 
hardened the heart of Pharaoh." And in the Epistle 
to the Romans it is written, " For the Scripture saith 
unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I 
raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee 5 
and that my name might be declared throughout the 
earth." 

In the first book of Kings, the people appeal to 
Rehoboam, to abate a portion of the burden under 
which they groaned. That monarch seeks the coun- 
sel, first of the old men, the former companions of 
his father, and then of the young men who had grown 
up with him. Wilfully rejecting the sage advice of 
the elders, he adopts the tyrannical measures recom- 
mended by the passions of his youthful associates* 
The consequence is, the revolt of the ten tribes. 
Here was an arbitrary decree of a despot, instigated 
by an evil heart and evil counsellors ; yet the whole 
is attributed directly to God's decree. " The king 
hearkened not unto the people ; for the cause was 
from the Lord, that he might perform his saying, 



488 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

which the Lord spake by Abijah the Shilonite unto 
Jeroboam the Son of Nebat." 

In the same regal history, Ahab disobeys God; 
and the prophet is sent to warn him that, as a pun- 
ishment, he shall be slain in battle. The monarch 
disguises himself so that he is not known ; and " a 
certain man drew a bow at a venture, and smote the 
king of Israel between the joints of the harness, 
and he died." The archer aimed his shaft at no one, 
but discharged it "at a venture" against the con- 
fused masses. Yet it was winged and guided by 
God's unerring decree. 

In the entire volume of the Book nothing is more 
fearful than the epitaph upon the soul of Judas 
Iscariot, spoken by the Saviour himself, "It had 
been good for that man if he had not been born." 
You at once perceive that this sentence consigned 
him to everlasting misery. The Universalist can 
never evade this passage. For if, after myriads of 
ages, the lost soul shall be released and translated 
to heaven, those centuries of wretchedness will be 
only as a moment, as nothing, compared with an 
eternity of happiness ; and it would not then be true 
that the culprit had better never been born. But 
now this treason — though instigated purely by cov- 
etousness, the ruling passion of the apostate — was 
a part of God's pre-arranged purpose. " None of 
them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the 
Scriptures might be fulfilled." "The Son of Man 



PREDESTINATION. 489 

goeth as it is written of him, but woe unto that man 
by whom the Son of Man is betrayed, it had been 
good for that man if he had not been born." " Men 
and brethren, this Scripture must needs have been 
fulfilled which the Holy Spirit, by the mouth of 
David spake before concerning Judas, which was 
guide to them that took Jesus." 

In fine, the great catastrophe of the Bible, the 
crucifixion of the Redeemer — if ever a deed was 
perpetrated by cruel, relentless malignity, it was the 
murder of that innocent benefactor of mankind. 
The actors in that tragedy were charged with hein- 
ous guilt in having " killed the Prince of Life," whom 
" with wicked hands they crucified and slew." Xor 
did these murderers attempt any palliation. " They 
were pricked to the heart," and cried out in anguish, 
"What shall we do?" Yet this conspiracy and its 
triumph only accomplished the predetermination of 
eternal wisdom and love. " Those things which God 
before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, 
that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled." 
"Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel 
and fore-knowledge of God, ye have taken and by 
wicked hands have crucified and slain." " For of a 
truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast 
anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the 
Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered 
together : for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy 
counsel determined before to be done." 



490 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

If anything be certain, then, it is that the anti- 
predestinarian system is wholly untenable. It is 
good for nothing, since it solves no difficulty, it stul- 
tifies our reason, it is practical atheism, and it con- 
tradicts the express assertions of the Bible. 

This argument is highly pleasing to some of you, 
I perceive. I read your approbation in your coun- 
tenances. I see you are ready to come forward and 
extend to me the hand of fellowship and cordial 
congratulation. " Certainly," I hear you exclaim, " all 
that you have advanced is incontestible ; it is just 
what we firmly believe. None but an idiot can 
reject the doctrine of predestination. Eeason and 
Scripture both condemn the heresy which leaves 
man a free, independent agent. We have always 
maintained this, and your reasoning ought to silence 
the presumption of those who proudly arrogate 
liberty of will and action." The men who thus speak 
belong to the other class I have mentioned ; they are 
Necessarians; they hold that God not only fore- 
knows but fore-determines all things ; that his decree 
controls irresistibly all matter, all mind, all feeling, 
all action ; and, therefore, that man's free agency is 
a tenet false, unscriptural, and absurd. Let us turn 
to this system, and examine it for a moment. Now, 
in the very outset we encounter one objection to this 
creed, which amounts to a refutation, and which 
nothing can remove ; it is the consciousness of free 



PREDESTINATION. 491 

will and free agency which every man carries in his 
own bosom. Keason, refine, cavil as we may, one 
thing is certain, we feel that we are free agents. 
Consciousness is an inward faculty which informs us 
of what passes within us ; and its intuitions are con- 
clusive and final as to the principles of our mental 
constitution — just as the authority of the senses con- 
vinces us of what takes place in the outward world. 
No matter what metaphysicians and schoolmen say, I 
am not more sure that I see the sun in the heavens, 
than that I act in accordance with my own unre- 
strained volitions. Suppose a man should construct 
an ingenious argument to prove that you do not see 
and cannot walk. You might not be able to detect 
the fallacy of his reasoning, but so long as you do 
see and do walk, you know that his logic is all false. 

Just so in the case before us ; the testimony of 
the interior sense is equally conclusive against all 
specious denials of our freedom. Indeed, if our will 
and conduct are not free, they are, of course, under 
compulsion; and it is impossible for conscience 
either to approve or to condemn our actions or our 
motives ; the deliberate murderer is no more guilty 
than the innocent victim of brute force, who, in spite 
of his protestations, is compelled to discharge a pis- 
tol into the breast of a stranger. 

Whatever theological dogmas men may adopt, 
there are some original truths written in the very 
structure of our nature, and our moral responsibility 
is one of these primary truths. 



492 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

But let us look a little more closely at this scheme 
of necessity, and see if it does not conduct us to 
issues quite as monstrous as those which have just 
shocked us in the opposite system. If man is not 
free, what then ! Why, then, he is not accountable 
when he sins. If man be forced by necessity, it is 
absurd to predicate any moral quality of his actions, 
to call them either good or evil. If man be com- 
pelled, it is impossible to deny that God is the author 
of sin — of all the sin which is perpetrated. From 
conclusions so profane and repulsive as these, even 
the hyper-Calvinist and fatalist shrink back, yet 
they are committed inevitably to them by their 
creed. 

This is not all. The system of the Necessarians is 
condemned by the Scriptures as unequivocally as 
that of their opponents. The cases which I have 
just now cited to establish the doctrine of predesti- 
nation, are equally as convincing as to man's free 
moral agency. For you remember that the inspired 
writers expressly charge the crimes upon their au- 
thors, without the slightest intimation that God's 
decrees have anything to do with man's guilt. In 
fact, they announce each of the doctrines now before 
us in the same sentence without any attempt to rec- 
oncile them, without seeming to be aware of any 
sort of contradiction between them. Eecall the illus- 
trations I submitted to you a moment since — the 
cases of Joseph, of Pharaoh, of Ahab, of Eehoboam, 



PREDESTINATION. 493 

of Judas, of the crucifixion — and you will find them 
just as incontestable with reference to Liberty as to 
Necessity. They take for granted man's free agency r 
as well as God's sovereign and universal control. 
Indeed, it is manifest that every call, every threat, 
every expostulation, every exhortation in the Bible 
supposes that man is a free agent. If he be not free, 
if he be the passive victim of inexorable, irresistible 
destiny, the Sacred Volume is a compilation of glar- 
ing inconsistencies — of sheer, downright falsehood 
and mockery. If a fixed fate has fore-doomed men 
as mere machines, how can God utter those tender 
complaints of their conduct with which the Scrip- 
tures abound f If his decrees compel men, how can 
he so earnestly admonish and beseech them to re- 
pent and turn from their evil ways? If men are 
forced by God's pre-ordination, how can he utter 
that assurance, "As I live, I desire not the death of 
the sinner, but that he turn and live f How could 
Jesus affirm that, if the mighty works done in Chora- 
zin "had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would 
have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes," and 
that if the mighty works done Capernaum " had been 
done in Sodom, it would have remained until this 
day ?" In a word, if God's purposes bind men inflex- 
ibly in chains, what is the meaning of that touching, 
weeping exclamation, " O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou 
that killest the prophets and stonest them which are 
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered 



494 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

thy children together even as a hen gathereth her 
chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold 
your house is left unto you desolate "? 

If you have followed me, I think you will confess 
now, that neither of the two classes indicated can 
be right. The Libertarian is plainly in error when 
he rejects the doctrine of predestination; and the 
Necessarian is as plainly in error when he rejects 
the doctrine of free agency. And these are the only 
two parties. I am aware that some theologians pro- 
fess to belong to a third and moderate school : and 
they undertake to reconcile the difficulties of our 
subject by this solution: — that God, who appoints 
the end, appoints also the means. This is the prop- 
osition advanced by Dr. Chalmers in an admirable 
sermon upon the very text now before us. It is no 
doubt very true ; but it elucidates nothing, it only 
removes the difficulty one step farther. The advo- 
cates of this thesis do not belong to a third class, 
they are Necessarians, and ascribe all events to 
God's decrees as rigorously as if no agent had been 
employed. In a former part of this discourse I re- 
marked that those who admit God's foreknowledge, 
but deny his fore-appointment, gain nothing by the 
discrimination; since, in the Creator, our minds can 
draw no distinction between foreseeing and fore-or- 
daining. I make a similar observation now as to the 
interposition of a medium. Nothing is gained by it. 
The unthinking may be thus satisfied ; but it is an 



PREDESTINATION. 495 

old axiom, that he who performs an act by another, 
performs it himself. In human affairs God never 
acts immediately, except when working miracles; he 
uses instruments and agents. These, of course, are 
chosen by him ; and if they are necessitated by his 
decrees — as is supposed in the case before us — the 
introduction of one or many agencies produces no 
modification in the system, which is that of mechani- 
cal force and stern compulsion. In these assemblies 
where you are compelled to listen in silence, a 
preacher may think that he has triumphed, when he 
thus disposes of an objection; but he deceives him- 
self. His hearers see clearly that he has not fairly 
met the difficulty ; he has only shifted it a little out 
of sight. 

In the recital from which our text is taken, Paul 
announced, by express revelation from heaven, that 
not a soul on board the ship should perish. Yet 
when the seamen were about to leave in the boats, 
he as confidently declared that unless they remained 
in the vessel the passengers could not be saved. 
According to the intermediate system, the Apostle 
was very inconsistent in this last admonition ; since 
he must have seen clearly that if God had prede- 
termined the salvation of all, he had also indefeasibly 
adjusted the means, and that his decree could no 
more be frustrated by the treachery of the mariners 
than by the winds and the waves. 

In reference to predestination and free agency, 



496 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

there are, then, only two systems — that of the Liber- 
tarians, and that of the Necessarians. These schemes 
seem to our minds not only irreconcilable, but antag- 
onistical. Yet the rejection of either involves us in 
consequences absurd and impious. And what is still 
more confounding, the Bible, with a directness and 
plainness admitting of no dispute or evasion, incul- 
cates both of these conflicting doctrines, requiring 
our unmutilated faith in each, without even noticing 
the inscrutable difficulty and seemingly palpable con- 
tradiction by which our intellects are bewildered. 

Thus perplexed and staggered, what are we to do? 
Thus far we have only been entangling ourselves in 
a labyrinth ; following first a path which leads one 
way; then returning and pursuing another path run- 
ning in the opposite direction ; but every attempt 
involving us more inextricably, until we feel hope- 
lessly lost. What are we to do ! It is evident that 
there is only one hope left us. We must confess our 
absolute blindness, and procure a guide who com- 
prehends all the dark intricacies ; one in whom we 
have perfect confidence ; who can and will conduct 
us safely; and we must surrender ourselves to him. 
Suppose that two men born blind were to enter into 
a dispute as to the color of an object ; one affirming 
that it is red; the other that it is blue. It is clear 
that these discussions would be simple absurdities ; 
since neither of them possesses that sense by which 
color can be known. Mr. Locke gives the case of a 



PREDESTINATION. 497 

blind man who insisted that he knew what the color 
of scarlet resembled ; and when asked what, he an- 
swered " The sound of a trumpet." Their contro- 
versy could be decided only in one way. An umpire 
must be found who can see; and who will decide the 
question truly ; and they must submit to his arbitra- 
ment. This analogy illustrates exactly our condition 
as to the subject before us, which is confessedly be- 
yond the reach of human faculties. Lut, now, can 
we secure such a guide as we have described? 
Where is the arbiter to be found, who perfectly com- 
prehends these deep things of God, and to whom we 
may with perfect confidence refer the difficulty ? 

My brethren, the guide, the arbiter we seek is 
before us. It is God himself. He understands 
fully his decrees ; he also comprehends man's free 
agency ; and he declares as we have seen, that all 
our speculations are wrong; that both these doc- 
trines are true ; and, of course, that there is no dis- 
crepancy between them. I have shown that it is 
impossible for us to reject either of these great 
truths, and it is equally impossible for our minds to 
reconcile them. But here, as everywhere, faith must 
come to our aid, teaching us to repose unquestion- 
ingly upon God's veracity ; reminding us that u secret 
things belong unto the Lord our God ;" and rebuking 
the arrogance which demands that our intellects shall 
penetrate and reconcile those thoughts of the divine 
mind which are as high above our thoughts as the 

32 



498 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

heavens are above the earth. With unspeakable 
condescension, God constantly invites us to confer 
and plead with him. " Come now," he says, " let us 
reason together." Only once, in all the Scriptures, 
does he silence the arguments of man by a stern, 
abrupt assertion of his sovereignty; and this is 
when an inquisitive objector has assumed the atti- 
tude of a caviller who, daring to believe less and 
presuming to comprehend more than is revealed, 
finds fault with his decrees because, as he pretends, 
they destroy man's moral freedom. It is this very 
presumption the Apostle cuts short by that sudden 
retort, " Kay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest 
against God?" 

The pillar by which Jehovah led his people was 
luminous all night long, but in the day it became an 
impenetrable column of murky cloud ; and it is thus 
God now reveals himself to us. His precepts and 
our duty are all so plain, that the wayfaring man, 
though a fool, need not err therein; but if instead of 
pursuing our way humbly and earnestly, we seek to 
fathom the abysses of his adorable wisdom, we are 
baffled ; clouds and darkness are round about him, 
" he makes darkness his secret place, his pavilions 
round about him are dark waters and thick clouds 
of the skies." And, as in the wilderness the black- 
ness proclaimed the majestic presence as gloriously 
as the splendor, so now, " it is the glory of God to 
conceal a thing." His independence, his infinite 



PREDESTINATION. 499 

superiority to all creatures, that reverential awe 
which is due to such a Being, require that much in 
his providence and everything in his secret coun- 
sels shall be inscrutable to man. 

If from Paul the traveller, animating his harrassed, 
tempest-tossed fellow voyagers, we turn to Paul the 
theologian, and ask how the immutable purposes of 
God can be harmonized with the perfect freeness of 
men he does not attempt to gratify our curiosity; 
he has but one answer, he exclaims, " O the depth 
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of 
God ! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his 
ways past finding out." And this temper — this hum- 
ble confession of our incompetency, this profound 
submission of our reason to mysteries which are 
above us — is taught not only by inspiration but by 
natural reason. We have taken our text from the 
travels of an Apostle, let us borrow from another 
traveller a case of casuistry which has been well 
cited by his illustrious countryman, and which ought 
to be profitable to many now before me. This acute 
and accurate author has recorded much useful infor- 
mation concerning the Persians ; and he tells us 
that among those Mohammedans the duty of remem- 
bering the limits of the human understanding is 
inculcated by the following curious anecdote. 

" There were once three brethren who all died at 
the same time. The two first were men ; the eldest 
having always lived in a habit of obedience to God ; 



500 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

the second, on the contrary, in a course of disobe- 
dience and sin. The third was an infant, incapable 
of distinguishing good from evil. These three broth- 
ers appeared before the tribunal of God ; the first 
was received into Paradise, the second was con- 
demned to hell, the third was sent to a middle place 
where there was neither pleasure nor pain, because 
he had not done either good or evil. When the 
youngest heard his sentence, and the reasons on 
which the supreme Judge grounded it, grieved to be 
excluded from Paradise, he exclaimed, Ah, Lord, 
hadst thou preserved my life as thou didst that of 
my good brother, how much better would it have 
been for me. I should have lived as he lived, and 
then I should have enjoyed as he does the happiness 
of eternal glory. My child, replied God to him, I 
knew thee, and I knew, that hadst thou lived longer, 
thou wouldst have lived like thy wicked brother, 
and like him wouldst have rendered thyself deserv- 
ing of the punishment of hell. The condemned 
brother, hearing this discourse of God, exclaimed, 
Ah, Lord, why didst thou not confer the same favor 
upon me as upon my younger brother, by depriving 
me of a life which I have so wickedly misspent as to 
bring myself under a sentence of condemnation? 
I preserved thy life, said God, to give thee an oppor- 
tunity of saving thyself. The younger brother, hear- 
ing this reply, exclaimed again, Ah, why then, my 
God, didst thou not preserve my life also, that I 



PREDESTINATION. 501 

might have had an opportunity of saving myself? 
God, to put an end to complaining and disputing, 
replied, Because my decree had determined other- 
wise." 

Let us, my brethren, study this fable, and be in- 
structed by these ingenious heathen. Other teach- 
ers begin by proposing to their scholars the exam- 
ples of those who have distinguished themselves in 
learning. Jesus commences by setting before us a 
little child, and requiring us to cultivate an humble, 
docile temper. The fact is, we are familiar with 
names, and we mistake this for a knowledge of 
things ; we adopt a system and love that more than 
truth. The inspired writers never set themselves to 
build up well adjusted scientific schemes; they sim- 
ply announce " God's testimony." But we must 
compact the truths revealed into a regular symmet- 
rical body of divinity ; we examine the Sacred 
Oracles, not to learn all they disclose, but with a 
fixed determination to defend our theory. Hence 
we study, not the Bible in its amplitude, but the 
authors who advocate our dogmas. And hence, too, 
we seek to wrest those Scriptures which conflict 
with the beauty and harmony of our ingeniously 
constructed systems. 

Do you receive the doctrine of predestination? 
Certainly. To reject it, I would have to stultify my 
intellect, to discard prophecy, which is based upon 
this truth, to abjure the unequivocal teachings of the 



502 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Bible, to believe that God had abandoned the earth 
to chance and disorder, and to plunge into I know 
not what absurdities. Well, then you do not receive 
the doctrine of man's free agency. Indeed I do; 
for otherwise I must renounce my own distinct con- 
sciousness, I must disbelieve the Scriptures, I must 
make God the author and yet the punisher of sin, 
I must precipitate myself into I know not what ab- 
surdities. I embrace both doctrines. Nay, more ; I 
see clearly that if I reject either of these great 
truths and cling to the other, it will tow me away 
into fathomless depths of folly and impiety. But r 
how do you reconcile these two doctrines f Eecon- 
cile ! I do not reconcile them at all. I am not re- 
quired to reconcile them. Who made me a judge 
and reconciler of God's acts and attributes and 
clearly revealed testimonies'? !No, my brethren; 
let us rather with Job exclaim, " Behold I am vile, 
what shall I answer thee f I will lay my hand upon 
my mouth. Once have I spoken, but I will not 
answer ; yea, twice, but I will proceed no farther. 
Lo, these are parts of thy ways, but how little a por- 
tion is heard of him. I know that thou canst do 
everything ; therefore have I uttered that I under- 
stood not, things too wonderful for me which I knew 
not. Canst thou by searching find out God ! Canst 
thou find out the Almighty unto perfection ! It is 
high as heaven, what canst thou do % deeper than 
hell, what canst thou know W 



PREDESTINATION. 503 

For my own part, as I contemplate these two 
grand doctrines I seem to see two parallel lines 
stretching away into eternity with thousands of other 
lines, all of which my vision can pursue but a little 
way. How they can ever meet, or whether they meet 
at all, I have no means of deciding. They appear to 
be ultimate facts, between which we can discover no 
links, but which are perfectly harmonious in the 
Divine Mind. We can discern no connection between 
them ; but it is preposterous to affirm that there is 
collision ; — pre-posterous in the exact meaning of the 
word, since a pre-requisite to such an assertion is a 
knowledge which we cannot possess. 

When I affirm two distinct truths, you never re- 
fuse to believe each, unless I can show some con- 
nection between them. " There is such a country as 
England." " The sun is shining brightly." What 
would you think of his intellect who should say, 
Both these propositions are clear, but I will not 
receive them unless you show me the relation 
between them. Such a man you would pronounce a 
lunatic. Yery well, now apply this reasoning to the 
doctrines before us. "God has pre-ordained all 
things." " Man is a free responsible agent." Neither 
of these propositions can be denied ; why do you 
reject either of them, unless I can show the connec- 
tion between them ? You will reply, Because they 
contradict each other. Now, this I denv, and this 
you cannot possibly prove. The whole matter is 



504 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

reduced to this single question: Can God fore- 
ordain all things, and yet form an intelligent being 
who shall be a perfectly free, moral, accountable 
agent 1 And it is clearly preposterous for any finite 
mind to attempt to answer that question; for the 
decision demands omniscience. God only can solve 
that problem, and, as we have his solution, — as he 
declares that he has peopled the earth with beings 
as free as if there were no decrees — our duty is 
plain. In this, as in other mysteries of Godliness, 
our speculations must cease, we must subject our 
"philosophy and vain deceit" to the decisions of 
Eevelation. Eeason must ascertain what God says, 
and then both faith and reason must acquiesce in 
humility and reverence. 

True wisdom is always humble. The wisdom 
which descendeth from above is so profoundly hum- 
ble that it at once confesses its ignorance and says, 
"If any man think that he knoweth anything, he 
knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know." It feels 
that all our present knowledges are only puerilities 
which will be put aside when we become men — a 
sort of nescience which " shall vanish away " when 
our minds are emancipated from darkness. There 
is a region of truth inaccessible to argument and 
logic ; there is a " sea of light" before whose excess 
of brightness our feeble intellects are dazzled into 
utter blindness. These domains we may one day 
fully penetrate. Now we can reach them, not by 



PREDESTINATION. 505 

reasoning, but only by childlike love. And for true 
spiritual wisdom only one course remains. As to 
predestination and other kindred subjects we must 
" have faith in God j" we must not expect to com- 
prehend all the parts and bearings of all things re- 
vealed in the Bible ; we must never carry our sys- 
tems farther than the teachings of the Word will 
justify; especially we must never impinge upon the 
clear doctrines of revelation. A profound philoso- 
pher has well remarked that " the wall of adamant 
which bounds human inquiry has scarcely ever been 
discovered by any adventurer until he has been 
roused by the shock which drove him back." All 
which is necessary to the perfect repose of a devout 
mind, is the knowledge, either that the truth has 
been ascertained, or that it is inaccessibly concealed 
in the abysses of light in which God dwells. As to 
the abstruse topics upon which we have been medi- 
tating, we may, therefore, rest from all speculations 
with perfect confidence. If we attempt to explain 
and reconcile the doctrines of predestination and 
free agency, we find impassable barriers hemming us 
in, and sharp adamant striking us back. But the 
proofs of these doctrines are irrefragable. Their 
harmony we must leave with God; it is an ultimate 
fact transcending our thoughts; but clear to that 
Intellect which is the supreme fountain of all light 
and love. 

II. So much for our text treated doctrinally. The 
few moments which remain I devote to the practical 



506 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

lessons of our subject, for these are very important ; 
darkness serving us for light; darkness teaching us 
more than light — even as night reveals more of the 
starry glories of the firmament than the day. 

And, first, it will not be in vain that I have con- 
ducted you through the intricacies of this discussion, 
if, once for all, we learn the folly of human wisdom, 
when in the presence of the deep things of God ; if 
we are convinced that the philosopher must discard 
his " oppositions of science falsely so called," and 
must, with the peasant, meekly receive the commu- 
nications which God has vouchsafed to man. Those 
who cavil at the mysteries of revelation, and those 
who pretend to solve them, always affect superior 
wisdom and penetration ; but in fact they only betray 
a want of thought. " I do not understand everything 
connected with this proposition, therefore I cannot 
believe it." The man who reasons thus will have a 
very short creed, for what truth is there, even in 
nature, which does not involve mysteries f Such 
language is simply foolish. For, whatever be the 
obscurities and difficulties of the Gospel, there is 
nothing in them unworthy of a religion which is 
divine, they are "mysteries of Godliness" inspiring 
sacred veneration, teaching us to be holy. And what- 
ever system we may seek to substitute for the Gos- 
pel — the religion of nature, infidelity, atheism — we 
cannot escape mysteries; we can explain nothing; 
Ave can only lose ourselves in fresh obscurities and 



PREDESTINATION. 507 

difficulties. In heaven God promises that all shall be 
explained, as far as finite intellects can comprehend 
his conduct and perfections ; but at present, every 
reflecting mind confesses that we are surrounded on 
every side by inexplicable enigmas. If anything be 
certain, if anything be true, elevating, worthy of all 
our confidence, it is the revelation contained in the 
Bible. Abandon that and we must surrender our- 
selves to universal scepticism. 

There is, even among those who profess to be 
Christians, a want of that full confidence which the 
Bible challenges as a revelation from God. We must 
correct this lurking infidelity. When we consider 
God's relation to us, and the incompetency of nature 
and reason to instruct us as to our future destiny, a 
communication directly from heaven seems to be an 
indispensable part of the divine intercourse with this 
earth. And supposing that God's goodness and jus- 
tice would cause him to make a revelation to man, 
there are only two ways by which it can be authenti- 
cated. These are, first, credentials conclusive to the 
mind; and secondly, internal evidence which con- 
vinces the heart — for the heart has its reasonings, 
and in religion they are prompter and surer than the 
deductions of the intellect. 

Now, examined by each of these tests, the Sacred 
Oracles establish at once and forever their divine 
origin ; and reason tells us that her highest office is 
to receive in all their integrity the things which " eye 



■508 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered 
into the heart of man, but which God hath revealed 
by his Spirit." To require God to reveal nothing 
which we cannot comprehend, is to demand of him 
more than he has done for unfallen angels, more than 
he can possibly do for any finite being. These pre- 
texts are the stale cavils of philosophy flown with 
vanity and conceit. They are not only insane, but 
impious ; for have these men any claims upon God? 
In a word, they are manifestly but the shifts and 
mere subterfuges of an evil heart ; since if these 
objectors knew all they demand to know, their duty 
could not be made any plainer than it now is. 

Theological prejudices are proverbially inveterate, 
and I do not expect that the arguments urged in this 
discourse will detach a single partizan from the creed 
to which he has long been bigoted ; but surely the 
incomprehensibility of the divine mind ought to 
rebuke the fierce controversies which too often em- 
bitter the hearts of Christians ; in waging which 
they entirely forget the admonition, that — though we 
understand all mysteries and all knowledge — we are 
nothing without charity. Marcellus said that, with 
all his imperial power, Tiberius Caesar could not give 
currency to a new word. Sectarian gladiators have 
unhappily invented and consecrated a good many 
new words, which have become the shibboleths of 
strife, bitterness and persecution. The two parties 
whom I have called Libertarians and Necessarians 



PREDESTINATION. 509 

are well known in the churches by other names. 
And they have often been arrayed in hostile atti- 
tudes against each other, urging a war of uncom- 
promising intolerance ; for this is a melancholy fact 
that it has generally been about polemical abstrac- 
tions, scarcely ever about moral duties, that theolo- 
gians have fulminated their anathemas. Each of 
these factions has much truth ; but each overlooks 
the fact that, as a mist is more dangerous than dark- 
ness, so partial truth is one of the most dangerous 
forms of error ; that the most effectual method of per- 
verting the Bible is to garble its teachings ; and each 
has pushed its system so far as to trench upon other 
truths. How much uncharitableness, strife, hatred, 
malice would be avoided, — what peace, love, har- 
mony would adorn the churches — if these partizans 
loved their dogmas less, and the unmutilated Scrip- 
tures more ; if they would conquer their prejudices; 
if, instead of presumptuously seeking to reconcile 
God's ways, they would remember that what seem 
discords to us, are only hidden, pre-established har- 
monies, which shall one day fill us with admiration 
and adoration ; if, in short, — instead of a mistaken, 
harsh, hard orthodoxy — they possessed more of that 
reverence which is the sublimest faculty of man's 
nature, before which self is humbled into nothing, 
and God's ways are a vast infinitude edged with in- 
tolerable radiance — eternity spreading all around it 
and stretching far away as its back-ground % 



510 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

The subject we have been discussing applies to 
our duties. Let us pray for grace that we may acqui- 
esce in all the mysteries of God's sovereignty, and 
yet hold inviolate all the strenuous activities of the 
life of faith. In a revelation from heaven there must 
be some mysteries ; there will be much that no 
thought of man can fully reach — since it is wrapped 
in the very light in which God dwells unapproach- 
ably. But we would expect his will concerning us 
to be distinctly announced. And so we find it. 
Whatever is obscure, we clearly see our duty. In 
the narrative before us, there was no sort of doubt 
as to what was to be done. The assurance from 
heaven not only did not relax the earnestness of the 
Apostle and the seamen, but it inspired fresh 
-strength and ardor. And thus, if we are sincere, 
will it be with us in our religious duties. Take prayer 
for example. God promises to answer prayer, and 
we know he does answer prayer. Let us not perplex 
ourselves by curious speculations as to the manner 
in which our petitions can be granted, and how the 
prevalence of our supplications can consort with 
God's unchangeableness. Prayer is the cry of human 
weakness, guilt and misery. If we are thoroughly 
in earnest, we will be encouraged by God's promises ; 
nor can any objection be drawn from the divine im- 
mutability, which would not equally prevent our 
planting, or toiling, or employing any means what- 
ever to attain an object. 



PREDESTINATION. 511 

Again, we are under the most solemn obligations 
to seek the salvation of men ; and we are only fold- 
ing about us a fatal illusion, if we hope to escape 
this responsibility by pleading any decrees of God. 
When Paul was vehemently opposed in Corinth, the 
Lord said to him, " Be not afraid, but speak, and hold 
not thy peace, for I have much people in this city." 
Does the Apostle argue that if God had much people 
in the city, it was unnecessary for him to labor and 
expose himself to suffering? Just the reverse. He 
devotes himself with renewed zeal to his work, and 
in this he furnishes a pattern to us, and a reproof to 
that antinomianism which has too long been a pre- 
text for indolence, covetousness, perfidiousness in 
the churches. 

Lastly, and above all, let us learn to work out our 
"own salvation with fear and trembling." As a 
motive to this duty, the Scriptures assure us that 
"it is God who worketh in us." Let us admit all 
the force and comprehensiveness of this motive. 
God worketh in me ; then I can work. God worketh 
in me ; then I will work. God worketh in me ; then 
I must work. 

Amidst all our ignorance and weakness, what we 
most clearly perceive is, the transcendent impor- 
tance of religion, the love of God, the atonement of 
the Cross and salvation through that atonement. 
Jesus Christ has come into the world to save sin- 
ners. His blood cleanses from all sin. The Holy 



512 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Spirit can deliver us from all our corruptions. The 
gospel is adapted to all our wants, and offers us its 
treasures without money and without price. All 
this we know. And we know, too, that God's hid- 
den decrees do not at all affect our conduct and 
character. You are shocked at the guilt of Judas 
and of the murderers of Christ. No ingenuity can 
persuade you that they were innocent because their 
passions were overruled and accomplished what 
God had fore-ordained. Your conscience, then, sec- 
onds the declarations of the Bible on this subject. 

And your reason seconds . your conscience ; for y 
after all your syllogisms to prove that the divine 
purposes hold and control man, nobody could in- 
duce you to leap into the sea, or to throw yourself 
from the summit of a precipice. 

Apply this reasoning to the concerns of your 
soul. Lost and ruined as we are, a great salvation 
has been provided for us, and it is yours by faith in 
Jesus. God repels no imputation with such intense 
abhorrence as that which charges him with desiring 
the death of any sinner. " Oh, Israel," he exclaims, 
" thou hast destroyed thyself, but in me is thy help." 
" As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure 
in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn 
from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, for why 
will ye die ! " Having — at such expense — wrought 
out a wonderful atonement, Jesus now calls you to 
turn to him and accept a full deliverence ; he assures 



PREDESTINATION. 513 

you he is not willing that " any should perish, but 
that all should come to repentance." " Come unto 
me," he cries, "and him that cometh I will in no 
wise cast out." 

But, still — as Paul said to the centurion and to the 
soldiers, " Except these abide in the ship ye cannot 
be saved " — so I tell you this day, that unless you 
are found in Christ, you cannot be saved. It has 
been well remarked, that any fool can ask questions 
which no wise man can answer; and the simplest 
man in that laboring vessel might have proposed 
just such impertinent inquiries as we now every 
day hear. If God has decreed that all of us shall 
be saved, how can the escape of the sailors reverse 
that decree ? If Infinite Wisdom and Power have 
predetermined that "not a hair shall fall from the 
head of any of us," why need we take some meat? 
why " lighten the ship and cast out the wheat into 
the sea"? " why loose the rudder bands and hoist 
up the mainsail to the wind " ? why need some 
"swim" and the rest seize upon "boards and 
broken pieces of the ship " ? These and similar 
questions any idiot might have asked ; but no man 
was idiot enough to waste time in such casuistry. 
On a sinking vessel people find very little edifica- 
tion in metaphysical dialectics ; they are altogether 
too much in earnest to bewilder their minds with 
these unprofitable subtilties. In the hour of dan- 
ger, he would be regarded as a lunatic, who should 

33 



514 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

stop to reason as our pretended philosophers rea- 
son. Had any one of the passengers refused to 
Ibestir himself and resolved to stand by his ortho- 
doxy, he would certainly have been drowned, in 
spite of all his unanswerable logic. And so, my 
friends, if you neglect the great salvation, you can- 
not escape ; you will perish, and all your pleas and 
pretences will only expose you to shame and ever- 
lasting contempt. 

Be warned, be wise, before it is forever too late. 
O, think, how short and uncertain your life is. Con- 
sider how perilous it is thus to defer that surrender 
to Jesus, which the word and providence and Spirit 
of God have so long been urging, and which you 
have so often secretly resolved upon. What is the 
great concern % " What?" you reply, "Why ! the salva- 
tion of my soul, certainly. To abandon sin, to over- 
come the fatal spirit of procrastination, to receive 
the Gospel on the terms of the Gospel, to take up 
the cross and follow Jesus— this is the first great 
concern." Such, my dear hearer, has been your con- 
fession a hundred times; such is your confession 
now. But what then? Alas, you have lived, and 
you will leave this house to go on living, as if salva- 
tion were the only affair unworthy of your serious 
attention. Lay these things solemnly to heart. Go 
not all the way to the judgment, to discover that 
your destruction is unnecessary and willful and 
wanton. 



PREDESTINATION. 515 

Or, if you are bent on self-destruction — if no en- 
treaties from God, no restraints of his providence, 
no solicitations of the Spirit, no expostulations, no 
tears of your Saviour can stop you — at least do not 
insult Heaven by pretending that you are waiting 
for more effectual influences. This plea admits that 
you feel some strivings of the Holy Ghost ; why do 
you not comply with these ? Why resist these, and 
desire more powerful movements ? What is this, 
but openly to proclaim that you will try conclusions 
with the Almighty ? that you are resolved to strive 
against your Maker, to yield nothing to him willingly, 
to defy him as long as you can, and only to submit 
to a sad necessity when he shall compel you? Is 
there anything in Eevelation — do you seriously 
think there is anything in the secret counsels of 
eternity — to justify the hope that God will thus be 
appeased ? What, my beloved friend, what can you 
expect from such deliberate, unrelenting opposition 
to the Sovereign of the Universe ? What must be 
the issue of such an unequal, disastrous, desperate 
conflict ? 

Let me adjure you — by the mercies of God and by 
the unspeakable danger of your soul, with only a 
brief and uncertain remnant of life left you — to 
adopt a different course. "Hear ye and give ear; 
be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory 
to the Lord your God, before he cause darkness, and 
before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains." 



516 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

He is the incomprehensible Jehovah ; but the mys- 
teriousness of his counsels casts no obscuration 
over his wisdom and love. It is a subliming, rejoic- 
ing exercise of faith, to feel that in God's ways there 
are heights and depths far out of our sight ; to sub- 
mit wholly to him ; to ascribe all honor and salvation 
to him — of whom and through whom, and to whom 
are all things ; to whom be glory forever. Amen. 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 



BY KEY. T. T. EATON, D. D., PETERSBURG, YA. 



*' They shall never perish." — John x. 28. 

Will all who are truly regenerate persevere in a 
state of grace to a state of glory ? or will some of 
them finally perish. ? Many a priori arguments have 
been used on both sides of this great question, which 
has for so many centuries divided the professed fol- 
lowers of Christ; but since " the Bible, and the Bible 
only, is the religion of Protestants," it is alone worth 
our while to consider what the Scriptures teach upon 
this subject. 

If the doctrine of election be true, then the final 
perseverance of the saints follows as a necessary 
corollary, so that every passage that can be cited to 
prove the former doctrine also goes to establish the 
latter. Peter (I. i. 2-5) calls Christians who are 
scattered over the world, "Elect according to the 
foreknowledge of God the Father through sanctifi- 
cation of the Spirit unto obedience and sprinkling 
of the blood of Jesus Christ; " and he adds that they 
" are kept by the power of God through faith unto 

517 



518 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." It 
is plain this language would not have been true of 
any Christians in " Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, 
and Bithynia," who afterwards were lost. It there- 
fore follows that none of them were lost; and if none 
of them, then no true Christians in any age will perish. 
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians (II. ii. 13), "God 
hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation 
through the sanctifieation of the Spirit and belief of 
the truth." Now, it is evident that no man can perish 
whom God hath chosen to salvation, for if chosen to 
salvation, he must be saved. A salvation that does 
not save is a contradiction. Ko man is saved so long 
as danger still threatens him, for the saved man is 
safe, and no one is safe who is in danger of perishing. 
Paul told the Philippian jailer (Acts xvi. 31), " Believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, 
and thy house." If there had been any danger of 
the jailer's being lost after believing, the Apostle 
could not have spoken to him thus. The language is 
not "believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and then you 
will have a probability of salvation," but "believe 
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." 
Again, in Acts ii. 47, we read, "And the Lord added 
to the church daily such as should be saved," — or, 
according to the Greek, "the saved," — and there could 
have been no doubtful ones among those added. 
Other similar passages might be cited, but let these 
suffice. None who are chosen of God to salvation 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 519 

will perish. All Christians are thus chosen. There- 
fore no Christian will perish. 

Our Saviour declared the doctrine of the Perse- 
verance of the Saints in language as plain as it is 
possible to use : " He that heareth my word, and 
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, 
and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed 
from death unto life." (John v. 24.) Every regen- 
erate man is described by the words, " he that heareth. 
my word and believeth on him that sent me," and, 
therefore, every regenerate man "hath everlasting 
life, and shall not come into condemnation." Could 
language declare more plainly that no Christian will 
finally perish? Universalists tinker at the word 
everlasting, and attempt to show that it does not 
mean endless; but even Universalists would scarcely 
claim that a life which endured only a few years could 
be rightly called everlasting. It is to be observed 
Jesus does not say "shall have," but "hath everlast- 
ing life "— the verb (s/sr) is in the present tense. To 
make it doubly sure, our Lord adds that such an one 
"shall not come into condemnation," which he would 
certainly do if he should be lost. The change from 
death to life has passed upon him that believeth, and 
that change is irreversible forever. Of similar import 
are other passages, e. #., John iii. 3G: "He that 
believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.'' We see 
that the very terms used in speaking of regeneration 
forbid the idea of men's perishing who are regen- 
erate. 



520 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

There is no such thing as a second spiritual birth. 
Nicodemus was right, that a second natural birth was 
impossible. No man is born, and grows a short time, 
dies and is born again to live a few more years, and 
so on. The same is true of the spiritual birth from 
above; it stands at the beginning of the Christian 
life. No man is born a babe in Christ, to grow in 
grace for awhile, to die and become a babe again. 
This analogy is of our Saviour's own choosing (John 
iii. 3-7), and shows that as we have but one natural 
life, so we have but one spiritual life. This does not 
of itself prove that the spiritual life may not be lost, 
but since those who believe the doctrine of apostasy 
believe that men may be regenerated, lose their faith, 
and be regenerated again, and repeat the process 
several times, it is proper to show, in this connection, 
that a man can be regenerated but once. 

Christians are often spoken of as children of God 
in Scripture, and this is no evanescent relation. Once 
a son, always a son, though a prodigal. Jesus calls 
believers sheep, and says, " My sheep hear my voice 
and I know them, and they follow me; and I give 
unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish ; 
neither shall any pluck them out of my hand." (John 
x. 27, 28.) Here it is plainly declared that no Chris- 
tian will ever perish — "they shall never perish." 
Such language would be false if a single one of the 
sheep was lost. And at the last day — under the 
figure of a shepherd's dividing the sheep from the 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 521 

goats — Christ tells us he will separate the righteous 
from the wicked (Matt. xxv. 32 and sq.), placing the 
sheep upon the right hand and the goats upon the 
left. u Then shall the King say unto them on his right 
hand, i Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of 
the world. 7 " All who are his sheep will hear this 
glad welcome — none of them shall perish. 

In the sermon on the mount, our Lord declared, 
u Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have 
we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name 
have cast out devils ? and in thy name have done 
many wonderful works? And then will I profess 
unto them, I never knew you : depart from me, ye 
that work iniquity." (Matt. vii. 22, 23.) Note the 
expression, " I never knew you." It is not, " I do 
not now know you, though I knew you once," but "I 
never knew you." Xone of that throng were ever 
truly regenerate, although they had made great pro- 
fessions and had been very active in "many wonderful 
works," else Christ would have known them. Paul 
declares his faith in the doctrine of final persever- 
ance when he writes to the Philip pians (i. 6): "Being 
confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun 
a, good work in you will perforin it until the day of 
Jesus Christ." The word rendered " perform " is 
iizereXiffee, and has the sense of " finish." God begins 
the work of grace in every regenerate person, and 
for that person to perish, would be for God to leave 



522 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

his work in that one unfinished. And since God will 
finish the work of grace he has begun in each heart 
" until the day of Jesus Christ," if any Christian falls 
from grace it must be after the resurrection, and that 
no one claims. 

Moreover, perseverance in holiness is declared in 
Scripture to be a test of regeneration ; that is to say, 
those who do not persevere were never truly regen- 
erate. Jesus said to some of the Jews at Jerusalem 
who believed on him, " If ye continue in my word 
then are ye my disciples indeed." (John viii. 31.) 
"If ye continue," "then are;" mark the words; the 
future continuance is a test of their present faith. 
If they continued not, then they were not at any time 
Christ's disciples indeed. To the same effect is the 
utterance of John (I. ii. 19), " They went out from us, 
but they were not of us ; for if they had been of us 
they would have continued with us." In King James* 
version, the words " no doubt " are inserted, but in 
italics, to show they do not belong in the passage. 
Here, then, it is emphatically stated that if those who 
went out had been "of us"— that is to say, if they 
had been regenerate — "they would have continued 
with us." The seed planted in Christian hearts is 
declared to be " incorruptible " (I. Peter i. 23), so that 
whenever what appears to be the result of regenera- 
tion becomes corrupt, that proves the regeneration 
to have been unreal. It is self-evident that what is 
incorruptible cannot become corrupt. " Whosoever 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 523 

is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed 
remaineth in him." (I. John iii. 9.) If, then, the seed 
remain eth in whosoever is born of God, no such one 
can perish. The seed which brought forth no fruit, 
in the parable, was sown in stony places and by the 
wayside ; that which fell in good ground yielded from 
thirty to an hundred fold. The house which fell was 
the one built upon the sand; the one founded upon 
the rock stood unharmed through the storm. 

There are other passages which might be cited, but 
these are sufficient for our present limits. Let us 
now consider the texts relied on to prove the oppo- 
site doctrine. In Matthew x. 22 we read, " But he 
that endureth to the end shall be saved ; w and this 
is claimed as implying that some will begin the life of 
faith, and, failing to endure to the end, will perish. 
The inference is unwarranted; the passage simply 
declares that the saved man is he that endureth to 
the end. This is made clear by referring to the Greek, 
6 dk uTzo/iecvaz ere ri^oc, o t jtoq acodrjaerai. Again, the 
passage (Heb. x. 38), " If any man dra*w back, my 
soul shall have no pleasure in him," is relied on to 
prove the doctrine of apostasy. The next verse 
makes the meaning plain (verse 39), "But we are not 
of them that draw back unto perdition, but of them 
that believe to the saving of the soul." Here two 
classes are described: those who " draw back " and 
those who "believe," and the passage is equivalent 
to a declaration that none who believe will draw 



524 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

back. Again (Heb. iii. 6 and 14): "Bat Christ as a 
son over his own house; whose house are we, if we 
hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope 
firm unto the end?" and "For we are made partakers 
of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence 
steadfast unto the end." These passages, so far from 
intimating that true believers may perish, declare 
just the opposite, for they make perseverance the 
test of the genuineness of faith. " Whose house are 
we if," etc. ; " We are made partakers of Christ if," 
etc. ; that is to say, if we do not hold fast we are not 
of Christ's house, nor are we made partakers of him; 
thus perseverance is made the test of discipleship, 
as we saw above. Salvation is promised to those 
who persevere; it is also promised to those who 
repent, and to those who believe, to those who love 
God, and to those who call upon him. Now, there is 
as much reason for saying that some repent who do 
not believe, or some believe who do not love God, or 
some love God who do not pray, as there is for saying 
that some believe who do not persevere. 

It is also claimed that apostasy is taught by our 
Lord in his last discourse to his disciples before his 
death. " Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, 
he taketh it away; and every branch that beareth 
fruit, he purgeth it that it may bring forth more 
fruit." (John xv. 2.) It is not stated that the fruit- 
less branches ever bore any fruit, which they must 
have done according to the doctrine of apostasy. 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 525 

Our Lord calls attention to two sorts of branches — 
the fruitless and the fruitful— and only the latter are 
said to abide in him. In verse 6 he declares : " If 
a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch," 
etc. Here, then, is a branch which did not abide in 
the vine, which had it done, it would (v. 5) have borne 
fruit. There are two sorts of branches on grape- 
vines — the real branch, which comes from the heart 
of the vine, and the proud shoot, which comes only 
from the sap. These latter are fruitless, and typify 
those who make the Christian profession, but have 
no \ital union with Christ, and do not "abide" in him. 
When our Lord uttered these words he was walking 
with his disciples through the vineyards which bor- 
dered Kedron, and amidst the fires in which the 
fruitless branches were being burnt by the keepers, 
Xo fruitful branch nor one which has a heart con- 
nection with the vine will ever be cast away. 

Peter's denial and Christ's words to him, " When 
thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren," we 
find cited to establish the doctrine of apostasy. But 
it must be borne in mind that conversion is not 
the same as regeneration. Conversion is a turning 
round, so that a man may be said to be converted as 
often as he goes wrong, while regeneration gives him 
a new nature, and this can take place but once. That 
Peter did not fall from grace is evident from Jesus; 
saying to him, " But I have prayed for thee that thy 
faith fail not." At the grave of Lazarus our Lord 



526 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

prayed, " Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard 
me. And I know that thou nearest me always ; but 
because of the people which stand by I said it that 
they may believe that thou hast sent me." Since the 
Father hears Christ always, he heard him when he 
prayed for Peter, and so his faith did not fail; and as 
2a proof that it did not, after the denial, he " went out 
and wept bitterly." And that same Saviour who 
prayed for Peter, prays to-day for all true Christians 
that their faith fail not, and therefore in no case will 
it fail. " It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is 
risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, 
who also maketh intercession for us." ( Bom. viii. 34. 
See also Heb. vii. 25, and I. John ii. 1.) 

Paul is supposed to teach the possibility of apos- 
tasy in I. Cor. ix. 27, where he says, "But I keep 
under my body and bring it into subjection ; lest that 
by any means, when I have preached to others, I 
myself should be a castaway." If he had said, " lest 
I myself should be an apostate," then the passage 
might have borne the interpretation sought to be 
put upon it. The Apostle is comparing the Christian 
life to the contests of the Greek athletes — a familiar 
picture to the Corinthians — and after stating how 
these athletes were " temperate in all things," "to 
obtain a corruptible crown," he goes on to say: "I 
therefore so run, not as uncertainly ; so fight I, not 
a-s one that beateth the air. But I keep my body 
under," etc. The word rendered " castaway " is 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 527 

dooxc/io- and means "spurious." Plato and other 
Greek writers use the word to describe counterfeit 
coin. Xow a counterfeit coin never was genuine, 
and the use of the word in this connection, so far 
from favoring, is in direct conflict with the doctrine 
of apostasy. 

That Paul said to the Galatians, "Ye are fallen 
from grace," is sometimes cited to prove apostasy. 
But the connection plainly shows that the Apostle 
referred to the doctrinal error of those who claimed 
that justification was by the law instead of by faith, 
and the argument is, that such persons, in their 
belief, had fallen from the doctrines of grace to 
those of works. A simple reading of the fourth, 
fifth and sixth verses ( Gal. v. 4, 5, 6,) will make the 
meaning clear. " Christ is become of no effect unto 
you, whosoever of you are justified by the law ; ye 
are fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit 
wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. For 
in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any- 
thing, nor uncircumcision ; but faith which worketh 
by love." 

But the passages chiefly relied upon to establish 
the doctrine of apostasy are Hebrews vi. 4-6 — " For 
it is impossible for those who were once enlightened 
and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made 
partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted of the 
good word of God, and the powers of the world to 
come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again 



528 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

unto repentance, seeing they crucify to themselves 
the Son of G-od afresh, and put him to an open 
shame ;"— and x. 26, 27—" For if we sin wilfully after 
that we have received the knowledge of the truth, 
there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, but a 
fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, 
which shall devour the adversaries." If these pas- 
sages prove apostasy, they prove too much for the 
advocates of that doctrine, who teach that a man 
may be recovered after apostatizing, and that, too, 
more than once. The words apostasy, apostatizing, 
etc., are used in this discussion as meaning the loss 
of regeneration and the passing back from a state 
of grace to a state of nature. But in neither of 
these passages is it said that a regenerate man may 
fall away. To say " if a thing should happen," is not 
to declare that it ever will happen. But none of the 
expressions in the above passages are necessarily 
descriptive of a true Christian. The expression 
" made partakers of the Holy Ghost and the powers 
of the world to come " is nearest such a description; 
but Judas had this qualification, for he wrought mira- 
cles by the power of the Holy Ghost; and Judas was 
never regenerate. It has been claimed that he was 
regenerate, and John xvii. 12 has been cited in proof. 
" Those whom thou gavest me have I kept, and none 
of them is lost, but the son of perdition." That 
Judas is here not declared to be one of those given 




WILLIAM JEWELL COLLEGE, LIBERTY, MO. 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 529 

to Christ will appeal by citing some precisely similar 
expressions. For example, in Luke iv. 25, 26, 27, we 
read : " But I tell you of a truth, many widows and 
orphans were in Israel in the days of Elias, when the 
heaven was shut up three years and six months, 
when great famine was throughout all the land ; but 
unto none of them was Elias sent save unto Sarepta, 
a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was a widow. 
And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Eliseus 
the prophet, and none of them was cleansed saving 
Naaman the Syrian." £Tow the widow of Sarepta 
and Naaman the Syrian are just as much included 
among the widows of Israel and the lepers of 
Israel, respectively, as is Judas included among 
those given to Christ. And neither the widow nor 
Xaaman were Israelites. The passage concerning 
Judas, fully expressed, would be : " Those whom 
thou gavest me have I kept, and none of them is 
lost, but the son of perdition is lost." 

There can be little doubt, however, that these two 
passages from Hebrews refer to the unpardonable 
sin. The descriptions suit that view exactly, and 
since this sin in Hebrews is declared unpardonable, 
if it is different from the sin against the Holy Ghost, 
which Jesus declared could never be forgiven, then 
there are two unpardonable sins, which no one 
claims. And besides John declares " there is a sin 
unto death" (I. John v. 16); language he would not 
have used had there been two such sins. 



530 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

It was not the purpose of this discussion to go 
outside of Scripture, but there is one objection, 
drawn from expediency, urged against the doctrine 
of Final Perseverance, and urged with such earnest- 
ness that we take space to mention it. It is asked, 
if the doctrine of Perseverance be true, what is the 
use of Christians' striving to keep the law ? If a man 
is saved when regenerated, and nothing can cause the 
loss of his soul, why should he not sin to his heart's 
content? Now this objection rests upon the idea 
that Christians desire to sin, and are only restrained 
by their fear of losing heaven, and thus their 
love to God is reduced to " a lively sense of favors 
expected " — a feeling contemptible in the eyes of all 
noble men. Salvation is not simply the removal of 
sin's penalty, but also deliverance from its power 
and pollution, and that man who would continue in 
sin if there was no penalty, is not a Christian. Jesus 
declared : " For whosoever will save his life shall 
lose it." ( Matt. xvi. 25.) According to Scripture the 
regenerate man loves holiness, strives and agonizes 
to be freed from the pollution of sin, and struggles 
against the law of sin remaining in his members and 
leading him into transgression. So that if a man 
loves sin, and only shrinks from it because of its 
consequences, he is a stranger to the saving grace 
of God. The true Christian would avoid sin none 
the less if he was certain of reaching heaven at last, 



PERSEVERANCE OF THE SAINTS. 531 

because he hates sin and loves God. An unregen- 
erate man in the church, if convinced that he was 
sure to reach heaven, would plunge headlong into 
sin because in his heart he loves sin ; and only to 
such is the doctrine of Saints' Perseverance a savor 
of death unto death. Perseverance, as we have 
seen, is a test of regeneration. 

While there is no danger of apostasy to God's 
children, there is great danger of self-deception, and 
great need for us to "work out our own salvation 
with fear and trembling." Those who at the last will 
say, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy 
name," etc., cannot be regarded as hypocrites, but 
as deceived ; for they evidently went to their graves 
believing they would reach heaven. How shall we 
know that we are not deceived ? John says : " He 
that loveth is born of God; " and again, "This is the 
love of God, that ye keep his commandments." ( I. 
John v. 3.) The verse before is a conclusive answer 
to the question just asked — "By this we know that 
we love the children of God, when we love God and 
keep his commandments." If we do this with earn- 
est and honest purpose, asking the Holy Spirit to 
guide us, we can echo from blessed hearts those 
joyful words wherein the great Apostle declares his 
belief in the Final Perseverance of the Saints, in 
that chapter (Eom, viii.) which is one long affirmation 
of this glorious doctrine. " For I am persuaded that 



532 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to coine y 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God, which 
is in Christ Jesus our Lord*" 






FUTURE PUNISHMENT— CHARACTER DE- 
TERMINES DOOM. 



BY REV. J. L. BURROWS, D. D., LOUISYILLE, KY. 

" He that is unjust, let him be unjust still ; he that is filthy, let 
him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be 
righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still." — 
Kev. xxii. 11. 

Whatever applications or limitations may be given 
to this passage, to make it fit in with the varied theo- 
ries of interpreting the Apocalypse, this much at 
least is certain : That it teaches that the tendency of 
both evil and good affections is to fixedness and 
mastery in the soul that fosters them. And this is 
not simply a truth of revelation, it is a fact of all 
human history and experience. Even if God's Word 
had never referred to it, it is indisputable truth. 
Men do become worse and worse by indulging and 
practicing evil, and they become better and better 
by cherishing good. The boy of fifteen may timidly 
and tremblingly enter upon a career of vice, which 
shall harden into inveterate and unchecked villainy 
in the man of forty. Right principles, persistently 
operative, mould habits of spirit and life, and become 
incorporate and incarnate as righteous character. 
Loose principles, carelessly acted upon, develop into 

533 



534 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

evil habits of soul and life and form bad character. 
And this is only saying what every thinking mind 
knows to be true ; that men good at heart become 
better and better, and men bad at heart become 
worse and worse. 

There has been a good deal of preaching and writ- 
ing and talking during the past few years about the 
existence, nature and duration of hell. Much of it 
has been misapprehended. As to the essential fact 
that the Scriptures do reveal that the impenitent 
ungodly will be wretched in the future world, there 
is almost entire agreement among evangelical Chris- 
tians holding to the inspiration of the Scriptures. 
As to the precise nature of the wretchedness, and as 
to the right interpretation of some of those terrible 
texts which speak of future woe, there may be 
differences. Some, too, may imagine that, through 
some yet unrevealed methods of redemption, there 
may be deliverance from misery and restoration to 
the favor of God. This is about the sum of the 
differences among evangelical ministers on this sub- 
ject. Now let me say to you, my friend, you will be 
very unwise to permit any discussions of this sort 
to encourage you to live in disobedience to God's 
commandments, and jump to the conclusion, " There 
is no hell, and therefore I may live as I please ; no 
matter how vilely I sin, I shall escape all punishment 
in the future world and be translated to a happy 
heaven." You had better not risk your soul upon a 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 535 

doubt, and live as though you were sure there would 
be no future retribution. Even a doubt on such a 
subject should impel us to choose the safer side. 

All agree that heaven may be secured by a holy 
soul, and that this holiness may be attained through 
faith in Christ and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. 
This at least is a sure way to heaven, and he is a fool 
who risks his soul upon a doubt as to whether there 
may not be some other way to heaven. Who would 
grope his way in storm and darkness to a mansion 
when he might have a clear and sure light along his 
path ? 

I submit for your serious consideration the follow- 
ing propositions, which, I think, are in harmony with 
all known mental laws and with the whole scope and 
tenor of God's Word. May God help you to weigh 
them with an honest heart as plainly set forth in the 
Word of God ! 

I. — Heaven is a home for the holy. 

A few out of many similar proofs from the Bible 
are these: Eom. ii. 7: "To them who by patient 
continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor 
and immortality, eternal life." Eom. vi. 22 : " Being 
made free from sin and become servants of God, ye 
have your fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting 
life." Heb. xii. 23: "The general assembly and 
church of the first born which are written in heaven," 
is composed of "the spirits of just men made per- 
fect." It is " an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled 



536 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

* * * and reserved in heaven for you." Kev. xxi. 
27 . a There shall in no wise enter into it anything 
that defileth nor worketh abomination, nor maketh a 
lie, but they which are written in the Lamb's book of 
life." With such proof-texts I think it can scarcely 
be doubted that the Scriptures plainly teach that 
those who are gathered into heaven will be holy, 
But then : 

II. — In this life men are not lioly. 

" There is none righteous, no not one." (Eom. iii. 
10.) " The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it 
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can 
be." (Rom. viii. 7.) This is a fact so universal and 
palpable as to be undeniable. No theory of morals, 
heathen or philosophical, asserts that men anywhere 
are what they ought to be or might be. There is no 
standard of right raised which man reaches. In 
every one's own consciousness and conscience is a 
conviction of failure and wrong. I care not how short 
may be your measuring-rod of perfection, it will 
always be longer than your own conduct and charac- 
ter will stretch over. You know in your own soul 
that you are not holy, and we have only to listen to 
your criticisms of the failings and faults of others to 
assure us that you do not believe that anybody else 
is immaculate. There seems scarcely need to argue 
such question at all. The proof is in the statement. 
All history, observation and experience confirm it. 
Men are not pure and holy beings. 



1 LTURE PUNISHMENT. 537 

If heaven is a home for the holy, and if men are 
not holy, then, 

III. — Men's affections must be changed before they 
can be fitted for heaven. 

This is a proposition which, as it seems to me, must 
be self-evident to every thinking mind. One cannot 
be happy amid surroundings which he dislikes, in 
employments which he hates. Take a vicious and 
hardened man out of a filthy hovel or a thieves' den, 
where he finds enjoyment in carousing and drinking 
and gambling, in obscene songs, and blasphemous 
slang, and ribald jests, and drunken laughter, plotting 
burglaries and thefts, and introduce him into a pious 
family, where the conversation is decorous and del- 
icate, where culture, and intelligence, and virtue 
characterize the whole intercourse of the household, 
and tell him to be happy there. Have you made him 
happy by the transfer without any change of his 
tastes and habits? You may tell him that his old 
haunt was a hell, and that this is a heaven, but he 
will scowl and curse you, and clamor, "Let me out 
of this ! I had rather go back to my hell than live in 
such a heaven as this." And he would dive, too, into 
his hell in an hour, if he could find his way there, and 
jest and laugh with his comrades about the mawkish 
and insipid and flat enjoyments to which he had 
been introduced. You must change the man's whole 
nature before he can be satisfied with what is pure 
and refined and elevating. 



538 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

Can you not see that the teachings of the Bible on 
this subject are founded upon profoundest knowl- 
edge of human nature. " Ye must be born again or 
you cannot see the kingdom of God." You must be 
"created anew," become "a new creature," "dead to 
sin and alive unto holiness," before heaven could 
reveal any joys that would suit your tastes or give 
you any pleasure. Why, sinner, when you think of 
heaven as a pure and holy place, can you imagine airy 
enjoyment which you could find amid such environ- 
ments or in such society? 

But perhaps you answer me: I hope to be so 
changed in tastes and feelings that I shall enjoy the 
pleasures which heaven furnishes. When and how? 

And let this question lead to our next proposition: 

IY. — Death works no change of character. 

This our text plainly intimates : " He that is unjust,, 
let him be unjust still; and he that is filthy, let him 
be filthy still ; and he that is righteous, let him be 
righteous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy 
still." 

Men sometimes talk loosely about death, as though 
it created some change of moral character, tastes and 
propensities. But death has to do only with man's 
physical being. It only stops the beating of the 
heart and the heaving of the lungs — stops the 
action of the vital forces and leaves the body to dis- 
solution and decay. But in all this there is nothing 
that touches mind or spirit, nothing that can annihilate^ 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 539 

or alter faculties or dispositions of the soul. A change 
of state or of place does not work a change of char- 
acter or of conscience. A bad man in America does 
not become a good man by travelling to France or 
Palestine, nor is there anything in the transfer from 
time into eternity to transform a filthy into a holy 
heart. What a man is in essential character this side 
of death he will be beyond it. You cannot die a 
sinner and be raised a saint. The bullet driven 
through a man's heart cannot reform his spiritual 
tastes and propensities or loves. If in death he lies 
down depraved, he will wake up depraved. What he 
loved here he will love there ; what he hated here he 
will hate there. If he ended this life a rebel against 
God, he will begin the new life a rebel against God. 
If he repudiated God and his authority and com- 
mandments in this life, he will, with equal dislike, 
repudiate them in the life to come. This position is 
in the line of all the deductions of mental science, 
as well as of the teachings of God's Word. In no 
sense can death be a renewer, purifier or saviour of 
the soul. Then it follows : 

Y. — If man a is unholy at death, he will be unholy 
after death' 

You will carry with you across the line the nature 
you possess here. If you are "holy, you will be 
holy still ; if filthy, you will be filthy still." Death is 
nothing but the stoppage of the life*forces; it is 
simply the absence of life, as darkness is the absence 



540 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

of light, or cold absence of heat. Death does not 
improve the body; it initiates deterioration, decay 
and corruption. It cannot improve mind or soul. It 
can have no influence in purifying or in any way 
changing moral character, in modifying mental habits 
or affections. In the very nature of things, then, it 
must be that if the soul continues to exist after the 
dissolution of the body, it must exist with the same 
affections, dispositions and habits as before that dis- 
solution. If a man hates God before he dies, he will 
hate God after his death. If he repudiates his right 
and authority this side the grave, he will repudiate 
them the other side. If he loves sin in this life, up 
to the point of his departure, he will love it beyond 
that point. If he is rebellious and selfish, and impa- 
tient and malignant until he dies, he will be all this 
afterward. If he is pure and loving and good, he 
will wake up so in eternity. If he has faith in Jesus 
to save and keep him, when he goes out of this life, 
he will find this faith sustaining and cheering him 
when he enters the next. Death changes nothing 
but matter. It has no power over mind and spirit. 
What a man is within himself in time, he will be in 
eternity. 

YI. — Affections and passions are confirmed and inten- 
sified by indulgence and exercise. 

Of this we have clearest proof in this life. Evil 
passions by every indulgence become stronger. 
Pure affections by every exercise become more 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 541 

pleasant and controlling. The man who gives way 
to anger, hate, avarice, lust, becomes worse and 
ever worse, strengthening habits and enlarging 
capabilities for evil. He who cultivates patience, 
forbearance, kindness, benevolence, charity, grows 
in these graces and becomes better and ever better 
in heart. Every thoughtful eye perceives this : that 
the bent and culture of one's affections enter into 
the formation of his permanent character. Is there 
any reason for believing that this natural law is sus- 
pended beyond death? What will there be to check 
or correct these proclivities and propensities of his 
nature? What will there be to hinder rebellion 
from becoming more rebellious; hate becoming- 
more hating; envy, more envious; blasphemy, more 
blasphemous ; every vile passion more violent ? And, 
on the other hand, why should not there, as here, 
every virtue and grace, by its own cultivation and 
exercise, become purer, sweeter and pleasanter? If 
the same mental laws operate there as here, there 
will be progressive developments and experiences — 
in the one direction wicked and wretched; in the 
other, pure and joyful. 

VII. — There tcill be law and government in the next 
icorld as really as in this. 

Many have an indefinite sort of notion that in the 
future life everything will be fixed and unchange- 
able ; that heaven will furnish rewards only for what 
has been done well in this world, and that hell will 



542 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

execute penalties only for what has been done of 
evil here. But God's word furnishes no warrant for 
such idea. " From everlasting to everlasting Jeho- 
vah is God." " He shall reign forever and ever." 

As the laws which govern physical nature operate 
through all time, so must the laws that govern mind. 
If law is violated in eternity, it will be followed by 
penalty as surely as in time. You cannot get away 
from God's government. His laws will be as binding 
in heaven and hell as upon earth. "If I ascend to 
heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in hell, 
behold, thou art there," etc. The sum of all his laws 
is this : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all 
thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself." Wherever 
this law is not obeyed there is sin. It follows, then, 

VIII. — So long as the soul siiis it will suffer. 

Sin, by its own inherent nature, works woe. The 
question then is, will you continue to be a sinner in 
the future world f And what is to prevent this, if 
your nature is not changed and purified ? You will 
be as responsible for obedience to divine law there 
as you are here. Will you be likely to love God and 
your neighbor there ! Carrying with you that nature 
and disposition you now possess, will you not hate 
God, and blaspheme his name, and wish you could 
conquer and dethrone him I You would not be rec- 
onciled to him in this life, where you had offers and 
opportunities; will you become reconciled to him 
there, when these opportunities are passed over? 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 513 

By your persistence in impenitence in this life, by 
your refusal to become fitted for the purity and 
blessedness of a holy heaven, you will have brought 
upon yourself a fatal necessity of perpetual sinful- 
ness — an impure state of heart — and that will bring 
its own wretchedness there, just as it does here. 
God does not arbitrarily send any man to hell. The 
man sends himself thither, because he is not fitted 
and would not become fitted for heaven. His own 
corrupt nature, his love of evil, his wicked disposi- 
tions, his antagonism of spirit to a holy God — these 
compose his hell. And according to his own evil 
propensities and affinities he finds his own place and 
companions. We find fearful illustrations of this in 
this world. There are hovels and dens in this, in 
every city, where parents and children live in bestial 
filth, riotous, blasphemous, vicious, criminal — where 
the parents are brutal and quarrelsome and violent, 
and where the children are trained to beggary, theft 
and burglary, and glory in their skill, and not a mem- 
ber of the household would change their hell of a 
home for an abode of purity and refinement and 
intelligence. And there is an awful sense in which 
wicked men will prefer hell to heaven. They will 
find in hell associations and affinities that will 
better suit their own tastes and habits than heaven 
could furnish, unless their natures are changed and 
purified. 



544 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

IX. — Wretchedness works no change of character. 

A notion prevails that punishment is reformatory; 
that suffering can purify the heart ; that the fires of 
purgatory or of hell can burn out the impurities of 
the soul and fuse the spirit into holiness. And we 
had the novel spectacle a few years since of thou- 
sands of priests praying at thousands of altars that 
the Pope, the infallible head of the church, might 
speedily be purified by the fires of purgatory and be 
permitted to enter heaven. They seemed to have 
had doubts as to whether he whom they called and 
almost worshipped as the Vicegerent of God and the 
Vicar of Christ had been welcomed to heavenly 
blessedness. If he believed and trusted in the sac- 
rifice and intercession of Jesus, and if his soul was- 
cleansed in the blood of Christ, like any other poor y 
ransomed sinner, he is in heaven to-day. And if not 
to-day, he never will be. " He that is holy will be 
holy still, and he that is filthy will be filthy still." 

If suffering could purify, this world would be a 
paradise to-day. In all the ages pain and agony have 
tortured humanity, and still the race is corrupt and 
vile. The horrors of delirium tremens do not change 
the drunkard's tastes nor reform his habits. The 
cariosity of the libertine's bones cannot extirpate his 
lusts. Prison chains cannot subdue the robber's 
greed. A recent earnest writer says : " Turn to the 
world's prison-houses and see how baseless is the 
notion that men can be morally renovated by pun- 



FUTURE PUNISHMENT. 545 

ishment. The Egyptian, Assyrian, Greek and Roman 
dungeons were synonyms of horror. Pains and 
penalties were meted ont without mercy. But not a 
single prisoner among all the thousands that suffered 
amid danger and chills, in chains and stocks, was 
ever transformed in moral character by this fearful 
punishment. In fact, criminals in the prisons of 
Christian nations have been morally transformed 
only by the Gospel. Kot punishment, but the rev- 
elation of divine love and truth in Christ has lifted 
many of them out of sin and brought them into 
fellowship with God." 1 
X. — 2To revelation ivarrants hope of future remedy. 
It is imagined by some that at some indefinite 
period in eternity the Lord will interpose some 
remedial method by which the lost may be redeemed 
and purified and fitted for the peace and holiness of 
heaven. They urge that his wisdom and goodness 
can provide such measures and make them effective. 
I do not deny that such consummation is possible. 
I dare not limit the wisdom or mercy of God. But 
this we may say: there is no revelation of such 
purpose in the Holy Scriptures, nor in the normal 
operation of the laws that govern mind; and these 
are given us for our instruction and guidance. We 
cannot find anywhere else grounds for faith or direc- 
tion. And these Scriptures speak of the decisions 
and sentences of the judgment, as final, and of the 

1 Rev. Dr. G. Anderson. 35 



546 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

state of both the accepted and the rejected as fixed 
It will be safest for us, my friends, to believe and 
act as if God's word were true. There is a way of 
relieving all doubts and of winning our souls' peace 
and safety. No one doubts that if there is a heaven 
it may be gained ; that if there is a hell it may be 
escaped, by repentance for sin and by such faith in 
Christ's atonement as shall purify our souls and lead 
to a holy life. That, by every theory, is a sure way 
to heaven. And by a thousand motives, outside any 
dread of hell, we are urged to submission, faith and 
obedience to God. We exhort you to seek this state 
of heart, because it is right and pure and blessed. 
The surest preparation for a holy heaven is regen- 
eration and sanctification of the spirit. Whatever 
may be the doom of others, " the pure in heart shall 
see God." 



THE RESURRECTION. 



BY PROF. NORMAN FOX, NEW YORK. 



"For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so 
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." — 
I. Thess. iv. 14. 

When God created the spirit of man, he created it 
in union with a material body. This being so, the 
question may arise whether that union will not be 
perpetual ; whether though the body go down into 
the grave, it shall not be raised again to exist with 
the spirit forever. 

That the body shall live again has been the belief of 
the Church through all the ages. Hardly the smallest 
sect has taken exception to the formula, " I believe 
in the resurrection of the body." It has ever and 
universally been felt that if the Bible plainly teaches 
anything at all, it teaches that the body which is laid 
in the grave shall yet be raised therefrom. 

I. It is true that the Bible nowhere contains the 
exact phrase " the resurrection of the body." And 
there has appeared here and there the doctrine that 
the rising from the dead of which the Scriptures 
speak is not the rising again of the very body which 
was laid in the tomb; that though the spirit in the 

547 



548 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

future will have a body, it will not be the body which 
now we wear. The idea is that in addition to — per- 
haps enclosed in — this covering of flesh and matter 
there is a more ethereal frame in which the spirit is 
clothed at death, leaving this present body behind 
in the grave, like the skin of the worm which the 
ascending butterfly has cast off— useless, worthless, 
never to be inhabited again. This doctrine is simply 
the doctrine of immortality in a bodily form ; it denies 
any resurrection but such as takes place at the 
moment of death. But this teaching can never find 
general acceptance as the Bible doctrine of the rising 
from the dead. For — 

1. Eegarding certain ones it is expressly revealed 
that the body in which they enter the future state is 
the body of the present time. When Jesus ascended 
from the Mount of Olives, when Elijah was caught up 
in the chariot of fire, when Enoch was taken as he 
walked with God — in each of these cases there 
ascended not merely some ethereal frame, the mate- 
terial body being left behind, but in each case there 
ascended that same body of flesh and bone in which 
the years of life had been spent. We are told (I. Thes. 
iv. 17) that when the Lord shall descend from heaven 
and the dead in Christ shall rise, those who are alive 
and remain shall be caught up together with them in 
the clouds to meet the Lord in the air — caught up, 
of course, in the bodies in which they there stand — 
and so shall they ever be with the Lord. Now if — as 



THE RESURRECTION. 519 

•of course must be the case — all bodies of the future 
saints shall be alike, then must all wear the bodies 
of the present time — "changed," of course, as Paul 
explains to the Corinthians (I. Cor. xv. 52) — but 
still the same bodies which they wore on the pres- 
ent earth. 

2. According to the teaching we are now consid- 
ering, the saints who have passed from earth have 
already fully attained the rising from the dead. But 
in the Bible teaching this rising is yet to take place. 
It is not until "the last trump " that "the dead shall 
be raised' 7 (I. Cor. xv. 52); not until "the Lord him- 
self shall descend from heaven with a shout" that 
"the dead in Christ shall rise." (I. Thess. iv. 16.) 
The time of the rising is given as still in the future. 
In many passages this rising, therefore, can be nothing 
less than the rising of the body from the grave. 

3. If the saints attain the rising from the dead 
when this present body dies, then Jesus rose from 
the dead the very moment he died on the cross. And 
how, then, does Scripture always say that he rose 
on the third day ? But if Jesus did not rise from the 
dead until his body rose from the grave, then those 
that sleep in Jesus will not have risen till their bod- 
ies rise from the tomb. 

4. The idea that the resurrection is simply exist- 
ence after the death of the body leaves no force 
whatever to Paul's argument based on the rising of 
Christ's body. " If Christ," he says,* "be preached 



550 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

that he rose from the dead, how say some among you 
that there is no resurrection from the dead?" (I. 
Cor. xv. 12.) Now the existence of Christ in a body 
which had risen would be no proof at all of the con- 
tinued existence of those whose bodies had not risen* 
To prove that these were still in being, he should 
have cited the appearance of some departed one 
whose body was still in the tomb. The case of 
Jesus is just the case which would prove nothing 
regarding the continued existence of those whose 
bodies were still lying in the grave. " If there be no 
resurrection from the dead," says Paul, "then is 
Christ not risen." Now it would not be admitted 
that if there was no existence after death for those 
whose bodies were still in the tomb, one could not 
be still in existence whose body had been restored 
to life. The Apostle's argument is : if there be no 
rising of the body from the grave, then is Jesus' 
body not risen from the grave ; but if Jesus' body 
be risen from the grave, how say some among you 
that there is no such thing as the rising of the body 
from the grave I The whole line of argument which 
the Apostle employs shows that the rising from the 
dead of which he was endeavoring to convince the 
Corinthians was not simply the existence of the 
spirit after the death of the body, but the rising to 
life again of the body itself. 

5. And that the body of the present is to be the 
body of the future is declared in Scripture in so 



THE RESURRECTION. 551 

many words. It is that which is sown in weakness 
which is to be raised in power, the corruptible which 
shall put on incorruption, the mortal which shall put 
on immortality. (I. Cor. xv.) We read (Phil. iii. 21) 
that Christ " shall change our vile (our lowly) body 
that it (the same) may be fashioned like unto his 
glorious body." And in other places do the Scrip- 
tures plainly declare that as the Saviour shall exist 
forever in the body which he wore when on earth, 
so the bodies of his saints shall be raised from the 
tomb to exist with their spirits forever. 

II. — But the idea of the restoration of this present 
body suggests difficulties which are indeed great. It 
decays, and its substance passing off in gases is dif- 
fused throughout the whole atmosphere ; consumed 
with fire, it ascends in smoke and is dispelled to the 
four corners of the heavens, or its indistinguishable 
ashes are trampled into the sod; cast into the sea, 
it is dissolved by the waters and wafted throughout 
the entire globe. Now it is not strange that to the 
humblest faith the question should arise, How can 
a body thus destroyed be ever restored ? 

He were a wise man indeed who should say how it 
could be done. But he must be a wiser yet to say 
that it could not be done. What man has so meas- 
ured the power and skill of the one who created both 
spirit and body as to say just where his might and 
wisdom cease ? And that God should restore this 
present body is no more incredible than many other 
things which we believe he has done or will do. 



552 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

1. We read that Elijah was caught up into heaven; 
that the body of Jesus ascended on high; that the 
bodies of the saints who are alive at Christ's coming 
shall be caught up to meet the Lord in the air. If 
we believe the Bible at all,, we must believe fully in 
these things. But explain to me just how, under the 
workings of gravitation and other natural forces, all 
these things can take place. Surely it is just as diffi- 
cult to believe that at Christ's coming the bodies of 
the living saints shall be caught up in the clouds as to 
believe that the bodies of the dead in Christ shall be 
raised to be caught up with them. If we allow that 
the one is not impossible, how shall we say that the 
other may not take place ? 

2. We read that God formed man's body out of 
the dust of the ground. Do you believe that state- 
ment? Tell me, then, how he did it ; how from inert 
clay could be formed the quivering muscle, the vivid 
nerve, the eye, the ear, the hand. But God did this 
thing ; nay, he repeats that mighty miracle every 
day. In the dust of the ground is planted a corn of 
wheat. It sprouts, it grows ; you have the full corn 
in the ear. What is that head of wheat? It is that 
dust of the ground which God has transformed into 
grain. You make that wheat into bread and eat that 
bread, and it becomes a part of your muscle and of 
your bone. What is that muscle I what is that bone % 
It is merely that dust of the ground which God has 
made into your body. Death and resurrection are 



THE RESURRECTION. OJO 

among the very commonest events of every-day life. 
You wipe from your brow a drop of perspiration. 
What is that drop of perspiration ? It is death ; it 
is so much of the substance of your body which has 
been destroyed and has passed away. You eat a 
morsel of food, and that loss is repaired. What is 
that eating of food and the incorporation of it into 
your physical frame ? It is resurrection. That part 
of the body which was destroyed is restored. And 
so death and resurrection are going on within us 
all the time. Did you ever think of it? — that every 
time you eat a morsel of bread there takes place 
within your body as wonderful an event as when the 
body was first formed from the dust — as wonderful 
an event as shall occur when the dead of all the ages 
shall arise to life again. Now if God formed this 
body in the beginning out of the dust of the ground, 
if in part, at least, he repeats tl^at great miracle 
every day of our lives, can he not in the end of time 
once more raise up that body from the dust % 

3. Again. We read that Jesus was raised from 
the dead. We read also that there was a restoration 
to life of two children — one by Elijah and the other 
by Elisha; also of the man that was laid in Elisha's 
grave; also of Jairus' daughter, the young man at 
Nam and Lazarus, by the Saviour; also of Dorcas, 
by Peter, and Eutychus, by Paul. Now if all these 
were raised up from death, why may there not be a 
general resurrection ? 



554 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

I know that some declare that in the case of Jesus 
and Lazarus and the others who have been raised 
from the dead, the usual corruption of the body did 
not take place. But I know not on what grounds this 
assertion can be based. As to the text — " Nor suffer 
thine holy one to see corruption" — it can have no 
broader meaning than the correlative passage, " Thou 
wilt not leave my soul in hell." But as the Saviour 
was left for the time being within the gates of death r 
so we must suppose a corresponding temporary 
abandonment to the power of death, which includes 
corruption. In the case of Jesus, of Lazarus, and of 
the others that were raised from the dead, I see no 
reason to suppose otherwise than that corruption 
commenced as in the usual case. Now when death 
has struck down one of our dear ones, it may be two or 
three days before we are compelled to bury our dead 
out of our sight ; but we must suppose that in each 
case the destruction of the tissues of the system 
commences the moment the breath leaves the lips. 
Therefore in the case of Jairus' daughter, who was 
raised immediately — say within half an hour of her 
death — as well as in that of Lazarus, who had lain 
so long in the grave that the prudent Martha feared 
to have the tomb unclosed, we must suppose that 
the body was restored to life after a portion of its 
fabric had been destroyed and had passed away into 
the atmosphere. Now such a partial restoration 
is just as difficult to understand as one where the 



THE RESURRECTION. 555 

component parts are all dispersed and separated. If 
the one has taken place, then may the other take 
place also. 

But suppose we allow that in the case of these 
resurrections there had been no dissolution of any 
part of the body, the matter remains still the same. 
If God could for three days keep in place all the 
particles of matter composing the body of Jesus, so 
that the body could be raised again, why could he 
not (if such a thing were necessary), keep at hand 
each of the particles of matter composing each of 
the bodies of all the thousands of the dead to restore 
those bodies to life in the end of time ? Adopt what 
scientific theory you please regarding the cases 
of resurrection which have already occurred, and 
the question still remains, Why, if certain bodies 
have been restored to life, may not the bodies of the 
countless dead all live again ? 

The case of which Matthew speaks in his account 
of the crucifixion is one of especial interest in this 
connection. He tells us that when Jesus yielded up 
the ghost "the graves were opened and many bodies 
of the saints which slept arose and came out of the 
graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy 
city and appeared unto many." When Jesus died 
graves were opened, showing that in his death the 
power of death was broken. After his resurrec- 
tion — not before, for he was the first born from the 
dead — the bodies of these saints came forth out of 



556 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

their tombs and entered into the holy city, the city 
of Jerusalem, and as Jesus showed himself to his 
disciples, so these appeared unto the living. Who 
were these sleeping saints? I have sometimes 
thought they were men of old who had looked with 
especial longing for the coming of the Messiah; men 
who had climbed the mountain-tops of faith, and while 
the world around them was still slumbering in dark- 
ness their eyes had caught from afar the beams of 
the rising sun. How long had these saints been 
sleeping? It were at least more natural to suppose 
that they were the ancient dead whose forms had 
gone back centuries before to their native dust. 
And what became of these risen bodies ? Did they, 
like the body of Lazarus, go back to the grave again, 
or may we suppose that this was their final resurrec- 
tion, and that when Jesus ascended up on high these 
risen saints ascended with him as first fruits and 
trophies of his conquest, to grace his triumphal 
return to his Father's throne ? But casting aside all 
surmises, this much of historic fact remains: that 
when Christ arose "many bodies of the saints which 
slept arose and came forth out of their graves n with 
him ; and if we believe this, must we not believe in 
the possibility of a general resurrection, as well as 
in the fact that the rising from the dead is the rising 
again of the very body that was laid in the tomb ? 

This whole topic is covered by the argument of 
Paul to the Corinthians: " If Christ be preached that 



THE .RESURRECTION. 557 

he rose from the dead, how say some among you that 
there is no resurrection of the dead ?" If you believe 
that Christ's body rose from the tomb, how say you 
that there is no such thing as a body's rising from 
the tomb ? " For," he says, " if the dead rise not, then 
is Christ not raised." If it be absolutely certain that 
the grave will not give up its dead, then our Saviour, 
who died and was buried, is still sleeping within its 
iron portals. If human science can make it certain 
that the dead form cannot rise again, then it can do 
what Pilate's guard could not do — it can keep the 
Saviour's body within the tomb. On the other hand, 
if our faith can say with Paul, " But now is Christ 
risen from the dead," then can we believe that the 
dead in Christ shall rise with him. When Jesus 
himself burst through the bars of the tomb, he left 
behind him a path broad enough for all the armies of 
his saints to come forth after him. 

III. — But many of the difficulties connected with 
the doctrine of the Besurrection disappear of them- 
selves on a little reflection. 

1. This question, for instance, is sometimes brought 
forward : The body dies — it decays, and its substance 
passes into some plant, which is eaten by and becomes 
part of the body of some other person, who in turn 
dies, and this same matter enters the system of still 
a third. Xow, how can you say that in each case the 
same body shall arise when the same particles of 
matter went to make up more than one body ? 



55S BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

This question proceeds on the assumption that, in 
order to have the same body, you must have the 
same particles of matter composing the body. But 
is this assumption correct ? You have the same body 
to-day that you had yesterday, have you not ? But 
the particles of matter composing your body are 
not the same now as they were then. By action — by 
thought, even — there is a continual waste of the 
tissues of the system, which waste food is required 
to repair. For every ounce of food incorporated 
into the system of a full-grown man to-day there 
must have been just so much waste of the system 
since yesterday. Thus the particles of matter com- 
posing our bodies are changing — changing all the 
while — never for two successive moments precisely 
the same — and physiologists tell us that in the 
course of seven years or so there is a complete 
change — that the man of fifty has had the particles 
of matter composing his system entirely changed 
something like seven different times. And yet you 
say that all the while it is the same body. It is the 
same body, because the animating principle is ever 
the same. Now, if the animating principle of your 
body has let go some of the particles of matter which 
it held to itself yesterday, and has taken to itself in 
their place others from the food which you have 
eaten to-day, and, notwithstanding this partial change 
of component particles, you say it is still the same 
body — what matters it though the complete change 



THE RESURRECTION. 559 

be instantaneous instead of gradual ? If, lying in the 
grave, the animating principle of your body suffers 
every particle of matter now composing it to escape, 
and then, by and by, aroused by Jehovah's voice, it 
arises and takes to itself, not as now from food and 
drink, but, as in the beginning, from the dust of the 
earth — not as now, in seven years' time, but in a 
moment, in the twinkling of an eye, it takes to itself 
enough, though entirely different particles of matter, 
to rebuild the frame — the body with which it lay 
down and the body with which it arises are the same 
body in precisely the same sense as the body you 
have now is the body you had yesterday, or last 
week, or ten years ago. 

2. To some, the rising of the same body suggests 
the perpetuation of the weaknesses and the imper- 
fections of the body. One dies in infancy — will he 
rise to eternal weakness and helplessness I Another 
goes down to the grave decrepit with age — will he 
rise weak, tottering, decrepit? Here is one who has 
gone through life a twisted cripple — some of his 
limbs were wanting at his birth, perhaps — or he is 
blind, or he has never had his hearing — will he rise 
crippled, blind, defective? This by no means follows. 
When one lies before us helpless in the cradle, and 
after a few years stands forth a stalwart man — has 
he not still the same body ! If the one bent with age 
should wash in the fabled fountain of youth and come 
forth young again, would he not still have the same 



560 BAPTTST DOCTRINES. 

body? When the eyes of the man born blind were 
opened — when the man received strength who had 
been lame from his mother's womb — when the man's 
withered arm was healed, had he not still the same 
body ? For the weakness, the disease, the imperfec- 
tion is no part of the body itself; these are not of 
the substance, but are only accidents of the body, 
and the body is the same though these all be done 
away, and the frame stand before us in strength and 
in perfection. As the soul of man is the same soul r 
though it be freed from all sin and made perfect in 
holiness, so the body may be the same body with all 
its imperfections done away. 

And with the doctrine of the resurrection should 
be joined the doctrine of the redemption of the body. 
For, though it is a glorious thought that the soul 
freed from sin should be made perfect in Christ 
Jesus, yet not in that alone will have come to pass 
that which is written, " Death is (completely) swal- 
lowed up in victory." For the body — the primeval 
companion of the spirit — is still lying in the prison- 
house of death. But as the body of our Lord was 
raised up from the grave, so shall the body of his 
disciple come forth from the tomb. And as all sin is 
cleansed from the mind, so every trace of the effects 
of sin shall be gone from the body. It shall arise, 
not as it went down into the grave, weak, .emaciated, 
marred and scarred by the power of the great enemy, 
but glorified, and thus made worthy to be the com- 



THE RESURRECTION. 561 

panion of the glorified spirit. The brow that was 
furrowed with care shall be fair with immortal 
beauty. The eyes that were dim with watching and 
with weeping shall kindle with undying radiance. 
The form that was bowed with trouble and with 
burdens shall be erect with immortal vigor, and the 
whole frame shall be transformed into the glory of 
God's own image. When John in his wondrous 
vision beheld the risen Lord, it was not as the Lord 
once was, with visage marred more than any man, 
and his form more than the sons of men ; it was not 
as the Lord appeared when he thirsted by the well 
of Samaria, or tottered beneath the burden of the 
cross. But " his head and his hairs were white like 
wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were as a flame of 
fire, and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned 
in a furnace, and his voice as the sound of many 
waters." So, when the disciple shall rise to meet his 
risen Lord, he shall be changed into that same glory. 
As he went down into the grave in the likeness of 
the first Adam, he shall rise therefrom in the likeness 
of the second Adam. In weakness, in suffering, in 
pain and in death, he has borne the image of the 
earthy — in brightness, in beauty, in glory and in 
power, he shall bear the image of the heavenly. As 
the human form in its first creation must have been 
the perfection of beauty and strength, much more, 
created anew in Christ, shall it be the model of every 
physical glory and excellence. 

36 



562 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

IV. — But some one may inquire regarding the 
nature of the bodies of the risen saints. On this 
point no one can speak with any definiteness. The 
Apostle tells us that the bodies of those who are 
alive at Christ's coming shall be "changed." The 
body of Elijah must have undergone some change at 
his translation. The body of Jesus now in glory is, 
of course, different from what it was on earth. So 
the bodies of the rising saints shall undergo a trans- 
formation. Weakness shall gird itself with power — 
the corrupt shall become incorruptible — dishonor 
shall be arrayed in glory — and the natural body, the 
body which we possess in common with the brutes, 
shall become a spiritual body — one which we shall 
possess in common with the angels. But just in 
what this transformation will consist, it were vain to 
speculate. If, on the morning of creation, there had 
been presented a handful of the dust of the ground, 
not the loftiest angelic intellect could have described 
from it the form and properties of the man that was 
to be created therefrom. If there were brought 
before us from some distant land a seed which we 
had never seen before — a black and shrivelled seed 
— not by placing it under the most powerful micro- 
scope ; not though the keenest scalpel unwound the 
folds of its tissues; not though the most skillful 
chemistry analyzed its substance, could one describe 
the stately plant, the beautiful flower, the luscious 
fruit which should spring from that shapeless seed. 



THE RESURRECTION. 563 

No more by the widest range of surmise can we, from 
the body of the present, describe that body which 
shall be. 

We sometimes read detailed descriptions of the 
scenes of the resurrection. We are told just how 
bone shall come to bone, and how the new body shall 
take form. But it is safer not to go beyond the 
statements of the Scriptures — the sum of which 
statements is merely this: Jesus had a body like 
ours ; that body, dying, was laid in the grave ; that 
same body rose from the grave, and, ascending up 
on high, is now glorified at God's right hand. So, 
though the bodies of his saints go down into the 
grave, they shall rise therefrom, and, glorified, shall 
ascend to meet the Lord in the air, to be forever 
with him. As to the details of the resurrection, it is 
not probable that we could understand them if they 
were all laid before us. But though many questions 
we might ask are left unanswered, the great truth 
itself stands clearly forth, that as Jesus now sits at 
the right hand of God in that form which was born 
of a woman, so, though our bodies slumber for a time 
in the grave, they shall arise, and in them shall we 
exist forever. 

V. — The doctrine of the Eesurrection conveys 
certain important lessons. 

1. It teaches us the dignity of the human frame. 
Some schools of philosophy have regarded matter 
as inherently vile — as the seat of all sin and evil. 



564 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

On this idea many religionists have despised the 
body — subjecting it to neglects and tortures — 
thinking that the more the body was oppressed and 
trampled on the more completely was the spirit 
freed. So often in our own time do we hear of the 
cumbering clay, the burden of the flesh, as if the 
body were but a clog from which the spirit might 
well desire to part forever. But the doctrine of the 
resurrection teaches us that this body of ours is not 
in itself sinful ; that it is only the abused servant of 
the wicked soul ; that if the plague-spot of sin be 
upon it, it is merely the livery of its tyrant master, 
the reprobate mind. This human body God has 
thought fit to be the eternal dwelling place of the 
glorified spirit — nay, even the King of Kings and 
Lord of Lords has thought it not unworthy to be 
worn by him as the robe of his majesty on the great 
white throne of eternity. If, therefore, the eternal 
duration of the mind makes it worthy of culture — if 
its exalted destination renders it worthy of respect — 
then should the body also be honored and esteemed, 
for it shall exist as long as the mind shall exist, twin 
sister of the spirit in the heirship of eternity. 

2. The doctrine of the Eesurrection lights up the 
darkness of the grave. As we recall the truth that 
the dead shall rise again, the thoughts of many a one 
go back to some sacred spot where precious dust is 
sleeping. But as the Saviour was destined to remain 
but three days in the tomb, so the bodies of the 



THE RESURRECTION. 565 

saints shall be left there only for a season. As we 
lay the pious dead to rest; as we look down into the 
awful chasm of the grave, we can even then begin 
to sing our song of triumph. " Exult not, O, grave, 
over thy victory, for soon it shall be rent from thy 
grasp. Only for a little while — but for a little while 
shalt thou retain the dear form we now surrender 
to thee." For, as the stone was rolled away from the 
door of the Saviour's sepulchre, so shall be rent the 
gates of the tombs where his loved ones are sleep- 
ing. The angels that watched by the sepulchre of 
Joseph of Arimathea, they hover above the spot 
where each of Christ's saints is sleeping, and not 
one shall be left in the power of the tomb. From 
the drifting currents of ocean; from the confused 
trenches of the battle field; from the unmarked 
grave in the distant lands of earth, they shall all 
come up in glad answer at the call of their Lord. He 
knoweth his sheep by name, and the grave must give 
them back every one. "Wherefore, comfort one 
another with these words." 

3. The doctrine of the Kesurrection sets forth the 
need and glory of redemption. I have been speaking 
merely of the resurrection of the dead in Christ, for 
it is their case alone to which the Apostle alludes in 
writing to their Thessalonian brethren. But there is 
a resurrection of the unjust as well as of the just — 
a resurrection to damnation as well as a resurrection 
to life. As for those who refuse all part in the 



566 BAPTIST DOCTRINES. 

redemption purchased by Christ, they must rise still 
in "the image of the earthy" — rise to a continuance 
of the pains which they have inherited as members 
of a sinful race — which they have increased by their 
own transgressions, and which must continue to 
increase as long as they continue to sin. On the other 
hand, redemption by Christ implies that these weak 
and suffering bodies of ours shall be delivered from 
the power of sin and pain, while evil passions and 
sinful habits — diseases of the soul —these, too, shall 
all be done away. Let us rejoice that this deliverance 
is offered us — let us hasten to accept it. And may 
the God of peace, that brought again from the dead 
our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, 
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make 
us perfect in every good word and woik to do his 
will, working in us that which is well pleasing in his 
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever 
and ever. Amen. 



}W?ufett<&tioitf*B Cf. % Skfi^. 

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' 'Did they descend from 
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Ir\ title ]Vti#i^ij)|>i Yklley. 

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Illu^kted Si^to^y of jVIi^ouri, 




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